VoIP Now

VoIP Roundup - Thur Mar 08, 2007

Skype Founder Janus Friis: Mile-High Bad Boy
Valleywag reported a couple of days ago that Janus Friis, one of the founders of Kazaa, Skype and Joost, and a millionaire by all accounts, got drunk and frisky with his girlfriend while on a Virgin Airlines flight. Get this: his girlfriend is the daughter of Roger Moore. As in Bond, James Bond.

Clearwire IPO Snags $600M
Intel may have come up with WiMax but Clearwire is the company building the networks in the United States. Doing that cost them $240M last year, but their IPO today generated $600M.

RIM's Balsillie Steps Down
Sort of. Jim Balsillie of RIM, maker of the BlackBerry line of mobile communications devices, has stepped down as a Chair of the Waterloo, Canada, company. This is due in part to an error in earnings reporting that will cost RIM US$250M. [Source: Kitchener-Waterloo local TV] Maybe Balsillie can spend the extra time finding a hockey team.

Who's Got Muni Wi-Fi?

Municipal Wi-Fi networks are popping all over the world, making connectedness easier for lots of people and pushing the possible ubiquity of dual mode cellular/ Wi-Fi phones (i.e., VoWiFi or VoIP over WiFi). Well, DailyWireless has a great list of the 10 most connected cities in the world, and goes in depth about each city. Note that the first 5 cities or so listed are all in Asia. Most of the rest are in Europe. What's up with North America, then?

Most interesting (to me, anyway): Shoreditch TV, which is a network of 100 public cameras in Shoreditch (east London, UK), broadcasting to the Internet. The idea is to dissuade criminals. Little Brother 2.0? Neighborhood Watch takes on a new meaning. Then again, the UK is considered to be one of the most endemic surveillance societies in the world.

Of course, there are loads of municipal Wi-Fi projects going on in the US and Canada, especially a few big ones in Silicon Valley (42 municipalities over 1500 sq mi).

Where in the World Are... You?

GPS capabilities are supposedly one of the current and near-future hot features of cell phones. It's been predicted, probably even before 2001, that all cell phones will have GPS capabilities, which would be particularly useful for tracking people in emergency situations.

However, for tracking bike and pedestrian traffic, PNAs (Personal Navigation Assistants) are supposedly not ready. That's primarily because the necessary cartographic work for bike and foot traffic hasn't been done for most places in the world, so having a nav system for them is pointless. And for safety reasons, you cannot assume either type of traffic can use regular GPS nav maps.

Still, when and if such maps are recorded, smartphones such as the Apple iPhone or some of the Linux keyless handsets might be ideal platforms for PNAs for cyclists and pedestrians. In fact, I'm predicting a general rise in world tourism over the next two decades (pretty easy prediction to make).

So PNAs for this type of traffic could become a burgeoning market. But having worked in GIS and digital mapping for seven years, I know there's a lot of work to be done to satisfy a market that doesn't yet really exist, and may not exist for many years. Not an easy business decision to make. On the other hand, as Clumsy on their feet says at the end of the article, paper maps never run out of batteries.

VoIP Roundup - Mon Feb 26, 2007

Apple TV Delayed
The shipping of the Apple iTV set-top box is being delayed until mid-March. The IPTV device allows you to wirelessly stream video content from your PC or Mac to a TV screen. I can hear TV junkie geeks everywhere going "damn!"

Some Communications Purchases
Two recent telecom purchases include Broadview Networks Holdings Inc.'s buyout of New York-based InfoHighway Communications Corp and phone maker Ericsson's plans to buyout Tandberg Television.

The Broadview combined company will serve 80,000 SMBs. Ericsson's planned purchase is in hopes of expanding their presence in the IPTV market.

How To Profit From VoIP
SmartBiz has an article with the enticing title How to profit from VoIP, which is actually an overview of Unified Messaging and presence. The crucial point of the article: it can't be done with the traditional PSTN system.

Skype Wants Changes To Mobile Network Access

Skype, whose name is synonymous with VoIP for some people, wants cellular networks operations to change, to be more open. In fact, they're demanding that the US FCC make changes to a legal decision from 1968 related to the AT&T network so that it applies to cell networks. That's because mobile operators limit the traffic on their networks, especially data networks.

Read between the lines and you'll probably conclude what I have: that Skype needs this ruling changed to offer full mobile Skype. Of course, they would also become very competitive with mobile operators as a result.

The irony of course is that while Skype has an open developer API (Application Programmer Interface), their networking protocol is closed - as in private. The general idea behind their request is a good one, but it just seems kind of hypocritical when they won't open their protocol - a decision that has caused companies, universities and countries to ban Skype use. And they're couching as a consumer rights issue.

Mobile Widgetized VoIP + VoIM Clients

Someone needs to go to design school. Widgets on a smartphone? Isn't the screen small enough already? Add widgets, and you just might need a magnify glass. Nevertheless, if you subscribe to the tantalizing idea of straining your eyesight, Netvibes will have a mobile version, Netvibes2Go, of their web2.0 application, which has widgets for a variety of VoIM clients. Still, anyone who has actually used applications on a smartphone/ PDA knows how awkard the experience is. I'd rather use a VoIP service like Jajah or Mino Wireless from my smartphone. They're relatively simple to use and don't require a lot of screen real estate.

Free Restaurant Wi-Fi?

Not sure how many of you go out to a restaurant expecting to work on your laptop, but First Watch Restaurants in the US seem to think there's a lot of people. So they're offering free Wi-Fi access in their company run restaurants, based on a Specialty Coffee Association poll that suggests 11% of customers choose a cafe based on having Wi-Fi access.

Seriously, there's a huge difference between a cafe and a restaurant. And if you can't put away your laptop or smartphone to enjoy a meal... well, you're lost. I personally can't see this making a difference for First Watch, especially if they're banking on more customers as a result. But if they did it to be generous, then bravo for them, for the fraction of customers who might interrupt their own meal to check their email.

VoIP Roundup - Sun Feb 25, 2007

Some VoIP Clients Not Approved For Vista
Want some more reasons for why you shouldn't yet switch to Microsoft's new Vista OS? Well if you're a VoIP user, Skype and some other soft clients are not approved for Vista yet. Now that doesn't mean they won't work on Vista, but why take the chance. There are apparently several popular apps that are not approved.

WiMax In India Soon
Intel's WiMax wireless networking protocol will be industry in India soon. A network has already been deployed in Chennai.

Skype Find Competes With The Big Search Engines?
Wondering about the new Skype 3.1 beta for Windows and the SkypeFind feature? Skype Journal thinks that SkypeFind is taking on Google, Microsoft and Yahoo for business listings. That's actually a very accurate assessment. Last year, Google offered click-to-call ability for some American business listings in their Google Maps application. SkypeFind isn't exactly the same, but it's functionality is, and they allow Skypers to rate a business. Not something a business might want though.

What Internet TV Needs: 7 Suggestions/ Concerns

What's listed here doesn't preclude the possibility that some software or web service already does it. This is my list of ideal IPTV (Internet TV)-related functionality.

1. Mobile TV.
   This is fine, but with wearable, comfortable goggles that project a virtual large screen. Little tiny phone screens won't cut it. The goggles are out there. They just need to be married with smartphones and PDAs. (i.e., maybe through     Bluetooth, since cellular data plans are outrageously priced in some countries.)
   
2. Wireless streaming.
   From my computer to my TV, if I want. (Though my computer screen is still larger than my TV, and I use an external TV capture box, which gives better performance than IPTV.) Apple's tentatively called iTV, for the digital living room, is one example.
   
3. Faster Internet connection speeds.
   Let's face it, Joost might be nice (I'm still waiting for a Babelgum invite), but a faster connection would help, obviously. And what happens, for example, when everyone in my neighborhood on cable Internet starts watching at the same time? At that point, I turn back to regular cable TV, as will others. The success of IPTV hinges on much faster connection speeds.
   
4. More bandwidth.
   My cable Internet provider caps me at 6 Gb/mth. I eat bandwidth for breakfast. I can use a Gigabyte in a single day sometimes. But can I buy more bandwidth? Noooooooo. Instead, if I go over in a given month, they'll warn me twice then cut me off until the next month - something I simply cannot afford to have happen, as a freelance writer. And with Joost's bandwidth consumption, this is important. Which is why I've stopped using it, beyond a few beta tests.
   
5. New compression coding.
   Wavelets theory is an ultra-geeky discipline created by brilliant physicists in the 1970s but has roots in studies done in 1909. It's pure, advanced applied mathematics used to model a lot of phenomena, and a math professor told me that even most PhD's in math or physics don't understand it fully.
      
   Data compression of images and video is one application, and depending on the algorithm used, the space savings are phenomenal. The benefit is that a crunched file would download very quickly. The problem is, that massive crunching requires a fairly significant amount of processing power to uncrunch for viewing. It certainly could not be done, with present home computers, in real-time. That is, you couldn't watch streaming video as it comes in over your Internet connection if the video data has been massively crunched with wavelet compression. The alternative is to not compress and have a faster connection, or more powerful graphics cards.
   
6. Quadcore video boards.
   The whole net neutrality debate was sparked, from what I interpret, when Internet providers felt they had to apply a tiered price structure for connections based on expected usage. Fact is, if we suddenly had the billion or so current Internet users all using VoIP and/or IPTV simultaneously, the current infrastructure couldn't handle it. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)
      
   We all probably want faster connection speeds, and they're coming, but will take time to roll out. What could come sooner is a new set of video compression codecs (last point) coupled with high-power graphics cards sporting their very own quad cores or more. If our graphics cards were powerful enough, and we used super-crunched video formats, we might possibly reduce bandwidth requirements down to a point where every Internet user could potentially watch Internet TV simultaneously. (Of course, it'd be nice to have something similar for VoIP communications: a quadcore sound card.)
      
   
7. More content, more choice.
       Video sharing sites already have a great deal of content choice, though not all of it is necessarily watchable. Soft clients like Joost are young yet, but will need - in my honest opinion - a great variety of content, and a pay-per-view model without advertising. And that requires sign-on from production houses.
    

Pretty much everything I've said here could apply to VoIP quality of service as well.

VoIP Roundup - Fri Feb 23, 2007

Skype 3.1 Windows Beta Released
Skype just announced a 3.1 beta revision for Windows. I haven't even bothered to upgrade to 3.0 because I wasn't sure that the Skype Extras I had installed would all work, and because there weren't enough new features to entice me. This release has one new "major" feature called SkypeFind, which lets the Skype community post or find information about "local businesses you like".

Skype Pro for Europe Launches
Skype announced their new Pro calling plans for Europe earlier in the week. Monthly subscription is 2 Euros, which gives free calls to domestic landlines in 15 European countries, free Skype Voicemail, 30 Euro discount on SkypeIn and a few other goodies.

Sitofono Mobile Click-to-Call
Having fallen behind on my VoIP reading in January and early February, I missed a lot of stories, including that Luca Filigheddu and Sitofono now offer free click-to-call functionality from mobile web browsers. Very cool. Now they can challenge Microsoft's mobile click to call.

Agreement on the iPhone Name

Apple and Cisco have reached an agreement on the use of the iPhone name, which Cisco owns (except in Canada). iPhone is of course the name given to the new Apple keypad-less phone due out in the USA later this year. [Sacramento Business Journal, Red Herring.]

From what I can gather, they're both going to use the name, which Cisco has owned through their Linksys subsidiary since 2000. There's no mention of the Canadian-based VoIP provider Comwave, who is claiming trademark ownership of the name iPhone in Canada.

Interestingly, same day reaction in the stock market caused Apple shares to go up about 30 cents and Cisco to go down about 28 cents.

Vonage Going Wireless?

Nuno of 21Talks reports that Vonage is about to start offering wireless services later this year. They'll also be reselling other broadband Internet access.

This might just be what Vonage needs to boost their profile. Ultimately, they're in business to make money. No doubt Vonage's shareholders will be happy with a rising share price. Customer would likely be happy to know that their VoIP provider will be staying in business after all.

If Vonage can do this by expanding their services and products offering, then all power to them. And if they end up being called Vonage Wireless like Nuno quotes some analysts saying, is that going to affect their business? Personally, I kind of like the sound of that. Om Malik, on the other hand, thinks it's more confusing to the market.

XM Satellite Radio Gets Sirius About Merger

How could I resist a pun like that? Peter Csathy talks about the pending merger of two Satellite Radio operations XM and Sirius. No doubt radio shock jock is wondering if the merger will affect the hundred plus million or so he got. Damn. Maybe I'm in the wrong business. I'm only offending people in the blogosphere.

Now I've been saying (just to myself, mind) since last Fall that they should merge. Service offerings-wise I think that customers would benefit. of course, for some cell phone handsets, you can already get XM Satellite Radio shows for about $15/m. No expensive XM device necessary.

Of course, whatever the merged company is called, they might consider offering some programming via the Internet. That's if their satellites are IP-based.

VoIP Roundup - Fri Feb 16, 2007

Slingbox for the Palm Treo
The Palm Treo line gets some IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) loving with Slingbox's new wireless set top box. You can stream TV (cable, satellite) to a Palm Treo smartphone over your cellular broadband connection. MyTreo has an officially approved video from a recent CES demo. Note that Treo 650 and 680 are not being supported (650 is discontinued, which means that I'm out of luck). EVDO continues to be a problem as far as advanced features go, so think twice before you buy a cellular data plan with EVDO.

Wireless Chargers?
The latest in wireless technology are devices that recharge your gadgets without, well, wires. MyTreo has a picture of the Wild Charger, which sort of looks like a solar panel.

Google Talk As An Internet Radio Station
On the surface, Google Talk appears to be an unassuming VoIM client, but there are more features than you might think. Amit Agarwal at Digital Inspirations gives a brief tutorial on how to get Google Talk to play MP3 files. Speaking of Internet music players, Finetune is worth checking out. Someone wrote somewhere that they thought it was a knock off of the very cool Pandora, but I disagree. Sure, they both let you create your own music playlists/ stations. But that doesn't make one a knock off.

Video Killed The Mobile Phone?

ABI Research released a report in late December stating that the mobile video market in mainland China will pass 32Mln users in 2008. The significance of this is tied to the fact that the Beijing Olympics takes place in that year. There will be two different technologies in use: broadcasting (27%) and unicast streaming (73%). Some users are expected to use both technologies. The Chinese SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television) announced two voluntary standards last year: DAB, which will give way to T-DMB. More details at ABI Research.

I'm still the Doubting Thomas on video about mobiles. Is there enough bandwidth? Are screens even big enough to prevent eyestrain, and to thus be enjoyable? While mobile video use will undoubtedly increase in the next few years, there's a difference between conducting short video calls and watching prolonged mobile video. But if there's any candidate for enjoyable mobile video, I'd have to say it's likely the Nokia N-series of phones - though I haven't laid my mitts on one yet.

VoIP Roundup - Sun Dec 31, 2006

VoIP Comm Now Mainstream?
Ken Camp points out that VoIP is no longer a niche and that it's gone mainstream.

San Fran Wi-Fi Is No-Fi
At least for now, San Francisco is delaying their citywide Wi-Fi network. Again. This is the network that Google is involved in. The issues come from within city council regarding who will own the network.

US Cellular Network Outages Kept Secret
When cell phone networks have service outages in the United States, they aren't announced. In fact, the FCC ordered "wire line" suppliers in 2004 to report them, but in turn removed them from the Freedom of Information Act. [via VoIP and Enum]

Verizon Will Allows Ads On Mobiles

Subscribers of Verizon Wireless who visit certain websites on their mobile phones will soon find advertising as part of the content served to them [NY Times]. As I've no doubt said before, I'm opposed to advertising if I have to foot the bill. Cellular data bandwidth is not unlimited everywhere, and some data plans are expensive.

So if someone is going to make money off of me, I'd expect that there'd some concession, such as free bandwidth or at least reduced monthly rates. At least the rumored Google phone is expected to be free, to counter the fact that you'll see ads. Or so the rumor says. So, if your cellular provider is planning hit you up with ads, protest to customer support until they either reduce your monthly rate or, welll... You decide.

Funding Free Municipal Wi-Fi

You've no doubt heard or read about all the muncipal Wi-Fi projects popping up across the United States and elsewhere. In some cities, there are several subscription options for different access speeds. In others, it's all free. One question that comes to mind is who is going to pay for the costs of this "free" Wi-Fi? In Portland, Oregon, Microsoft is involved in a full-speed wireless network that'll offer free access in return for showing users paid advertising. Dailywireless asks whether this will work.

My own feeling is that in any given city, some people will be more than happy to have free Wi-Fi, even if they have to watch ads. It's why VoIP subscription models like that of Globe7 could work. However, are there enough such people? Way back in the early 90s, I tried free regional long distance calling in return for listening to ads (pre-Internet) and got sick of wait, the crappy music, and the same old ads. If, however, I had to watch, say, movie or TV trailers for access to the Internet, I might be okay on that. What about you?

If there are not enough people supporting the advertisers of such wireless networks, however, what happens to the city? Do taxes go up? Do they force paid subscription on users? And when people say sayonnara, does the city tear down the infrastructure? That costs money, too.

The concept of free wireless access is relatively new. I'm not sure, but I think it was used by some ISPs for dialup Internet access, though I'm not so sure that succeed as I can't think of any examples. Only time (or indepth surveys) will tell if such payment models will work.

VoIP Roundup - Sat Dec 30, 2006

Who Loves Ya, VoIP?
ISP Planet has a list VoIP carriers and vendors that are "helping to shape and define this industry." [via VoIP News] It shows how much I need to learn, as I haven't heard half of these names.

WiMax In Italy
WiMax might be something you're only expecting in North America, particularly in the US. But the Italian Communications Ministry is offering licenses for sale starting June 2007. [via Red Herring] I guess no Korean WiBro for Italy.

Nokia N-Series vs Treo 700w
I've muttered on about how much of a love-hate relationship I have with my Palm Treo 650 PDA, but I have nothing to compare it to for you. But Ken Camp does have his own comparison of the Treo 700 versus the much ballyhooed Nokia N-series phones. Ken is one of the bloggers selected for the Nokia blogger relations program.

The Indian Bluetooth Gambit: Or How To Cheat At Chess

Grandmaster Bobby Fischer caused a ruckus in the 1970s. when he he denounced the United States - where he grew up - and made pointed political comments. More recently, he renounced his US citizenship to avoid deportation to the US and a 10-year jail sentence. He also spoke in Iceland about President Bush's "regime". By comparison, Umakant Sharma, an Indian chess player, might be considered less trouble, merely cheating at chess using a Bluetooth device stitched into his cap. Now, this isn't the Bluetooth ski cap Motorola offers, but this certainly would be one unexpected way to use it. It's not like it's hard to configure Bluetooth headsets.

His accomplices would run chess simulations on a computer and relayed info to him. Sharma has been banned for 10 years. Maybe he can join Fischer on the fugitive lecture circuit.

Some Tech For VoIP Lovers

Gizmodo has a couple of articles discussing some interesting new tech ideal for VoIP and wireless work. First, there are these wee little portable USB Phonebook devices that plug into your cell phone and laptop, for easy transfer of your address book. Then there's Gefen's Wireless USB hubs with a 100-foot range. I have to admit, I hadn't really understood the concept of wireless USB, in the sense that "what's new here?". But these UWB (ultrawide band) hubs have something going for them, possible even as a replacement for Bluetooth tech, which can be notorious energy hogs. I'll have to look into this further, but the equipment is a bit pricey.

VoIP Roundup - Fri Dec 29, 2006

Stop, Phone Thief!
The Jan 2007 wired has an overview of 4 anti-theft technologies for cell phones: a screamer from RemoteXT, a gait and voice recognition system from VTT, a holster sensor from Research in Motion, and a GPS tracker from NTT DoCoMo.

Stop, Wi-Fi Thief!
If your neighbor has unsecured Wi-Fi just begging to be used, you may want to think twice. Same goes for Wi-Fi at the local cafe. Seems arrests for inappropriate use of Wi-Fi networks is increasing these days. Techdirt has a suggestion: offer the leeches coffee. Makes sense, and generates a bit of revenue. Though I can't see a neighbor doing the same. Maybe you could ask for a cup of sugar?

Stop, Phoneblogger!
Just kidding. ComputerWorld has five fantastic phone tricks to get more out of your phone, including the lowdown on a free phone blogging service called Plusmo.

Communication Breakdown: Ahem. How's My Voice... Tech?

While Clearwire is pushing WiMax and attempting another go at an IPO, One IP Voice is filing Chapter 11. BCE Inc. (Bell Canada Enterprises) sold its satellite division for $3.4+B, and Nortel signed a $2B CDMA EV-DO contract for 5 years with Verizon Wireless. (Nortel is the Canadian company once known as Northern Telecom that pretends it's American. I think that's because it has so many American shareholders. BCE used to be part owners, but I don't know if they still are.) Google is planning a Google Phone, possibly with Orange, and Linksys/ Cisco beat Apple to the punch with their own registered iPhone brand. Apple's Steve Jobs is expected to announce their iPod Phone in January at MacWorld. Skype announced disruptive pricing for SkypeOut in North America, though they have more disruptive plans after Jan 31st, 2007, for the whole world. More to come.

Rogue Airport Honeypots

No, that's not the name of some fictional character from the old M*A*S*H TV show, it's what might greet you at airports (possibly near VoIP lounges). Lifehacker has a few tips about fake Wi-Fi networks in airports, setup for the explicit purpose of grabbing personal info off your laptop, by luring you with the "honey" of free Wi-Fi.

Instead, be your own Wi-Fi hotspot. If you have a smartphone/ PDA with a cellular data plan, use that connected to your laptop instead. You'll either need a special USB cable, or if you have Bluetooth on your phone and laptop (just get a Bluetooth USB dongle), you can configure both to talk to each other. Although the password is only 4 digits, you're probably going to be transient enough in the airport that it's no big deal.

Alternately, if you have an EV-DO cellular data PCMCIA laptop card, you don't have to bother with the phone/ laptop sync. Either solution is better than giving up your details to random honeypots in strange (or not so strange) airports.

Mega-RAM Jam For Mobile Phones

Only a few years back, 1 Gigabyte of RAM memory on your computer sounded like a lot. Now, 1-2 Gb is fairly standard on new computers. Well thanks to a memory innovation from NEC, we might be seeing 10Gb standard without needing extra slots. The same technology would also make 2Gb standard on mobile tech such as cell phones. The latter would lead to fast video playback and 3D graphics.

With faster wireless neworks such as WiMax and WiBro starting to peer out, mobile TV might become more common. This kind of memory on smartphones certainly won't hurt VoIP/ VoIM clients such as Skype, which is available on a wide array of Windows Mobile and Pocket PC devices.

Skype 2.2 Smartphone + PocketPC Beta

Skype 2.2 Beta for Windows mobile devices was released recently and you can start using Skype on your smartphone/pocket PC device. Though obviously you'll need a mobile data plan, preferably unlimited.

Features
The list includes:

• More Windows Mobile and PocketPC devices supported.
• Status displays (whether your friends are busy/ available).
• Alerts on missed calls.
• Chat messages and voice messages.
• Suport for HTTP, HTTPS, HTTS/SSL and SOCKS5 proxies.

Hardware requirements
Minimum hardware configuration requirements for Skype 2.2 as per Skype's website:

• OS: Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone 2003, Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone 2003 Second Edition (SE), or Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0Smartphone.
• Display: 240x320, 320x240.
• CPU: 195Mhz OMAP, 312Mhz Intel or 300Mhz Samsung.
• Network: Wi-Fi, 3G or EDGE.

Disk  space requirements

• 10MB disk space for installing on smartphones. After installation, 6MB is sufficient
  for running the app.
• 13MB disk space for installing on Pocket PC. After installation, 7MB of disk space is enough.

Existing problems

• The Skype forum lists some possible problems you might face with Skype for Windows Mobile 2.2.0.18.
• Quality of the calls via Voice over IP may not be great. Call quality is influenced by many factors.

5 New + Recent Terms In IP Communications

IP telecommunications is obviously a huge area with many facets, and new ones popping up. While those in the industry and some VoIP bloggers may know the terms, the general public likely does not. I often use Google Trends to compare terms and their relative search volumes. Which is what I've done witih some of the terms below. These are terms to watch, because we'll see them mentioned in the media more often.

1. Spot dialing.
   Brian McConnell came up with this to describe make a call over a Wi-Fi hotspot. I.e., as a replacement to Voice over Wi-Fi (which some people call VoWiFi but is rather techy).
2. TVoIP, teeVoIP.
   Ken Camp wrote a very evocative piece called Ken's magnificent Seven for 2006, about what he thinks have been the hot growth areas for IP Comm. He came up with the term TVoIP to represent user-generated content such as that at YouTube and blip.tv. I've been referring to this as a facet of IPTV, though that's probably incorrect.
3. vVoIP, VVoIP, WoIP.
   This aren't new, per se, as there are references to it back to at least 2004, possibly earlier. But Google Trends says there isn't even enough search data for them to show a comparative graph. But there are three ways to signify this, possibly causing confusion. Should we use any of these or come up with yet another one and hope it'll catch on? Video calling works for me.
4. POVS.
   Garrett Smith came up with POVS, Plain Old VoIP Service to refer to any VoIP service mimicking traditional phone calls. I.e., what some people call pure play, when you use a regular telephone with an ATA (Analog Telephone Adaptor), such as with Vonage and PhoneGnome.
5. FMC, Fixed Mobile Convergence.
   Most searches for FMC are probably for one of two companies with "FMC" in their name. (Google doesn't give hard search volumes.) The longer version doesn't register in Google Trends. But true FMC will push dual-mode cellular/ Wi-Fi calling forwards, though maybe it needs a friendlier name.

What do you think about these terms? A bit technical, in some cases. Got any suggestions for alternates?

Talkster Interview With James Wanless

James Wanless, one of the three entrepreneurs behind Canadian-based mobile-to-VoIM service provider Talkster has been a busy man, flying here and there to promote the service. Talkster relaunched this past Monday, but he managed to fit in an interview chat with me last Friday - a follow-up to a previous chat.

You may have already read about Talkster elsewhere, so instead of repeating that Talkster is a cool mobile-to-VoIM voice service, I'll quickly synopsize what James told me about what's happening with the company.

Their plan, he said, is to market to businesses. As he mentions on his blog, in the post The Great Race (To Zero), VoIP/ VoIM providers can give some of their services away for free but they have to have a monetization model to keep the business going and offer quality. And when you're a company started by three self-employed, self-funded people, you have to find a way to monetize.

That said, James said that Talkster is not only looking for funding but channel partners. If you have an idea for a way to integrate Talkster into your own voice application, they encourage you to contact them. The interface is based on the open standard XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), but their API is only revealed to channel partners. (This is the same approach that SightSpeed seems to have.) If you think you might have some ideas in this regard, contact someone at Talkster.

Skype and Bandwidth On Mobile

Did you get a shiny new EV-DO data card for your laptop or EV-DO on your PDA/ smartphone? If you're running Mobile Windows (not Palm OS), you can run Skype on your phone. If you're wondering about how much bandwidth is used up by Skype, and whether it'll eat into your EV-DO monthly data plan, Ken Camp provides a few details, gleaned from the Skype FAQ. He also discusses the quality of a call between himself and Phoneboy.

My own experience with EV-DO on my Palm Treo 650 (Palm OS) is limited to calls over VoIP bridges, as EV-DO and Palm OS don't play nice. So while I can run a few Google Talk compatible IM (Instant Messaging) clients on my Treo, I cannot run actual VoIP software. Yet. However, with my one success (I gave up after a while) on Mino Wireless, the call quality was very good.

iPod As Destroyer Of Civilization?

Fox TV talk show loudmouth Bill O'Reilly went off his regular nut recently, blaming all kinds of mobile gadgets for the collapse of civilization - or so I interpret And VoIP blogger Russell Shaw says he agrees with him for once. I've actually been saying some of what Russell says for many, many years. I'm not quite a Luddite - as I love gadgets - but my unfinished book "Moving Forward While Standing Still," started over a decade ago, talks about this sort of thing.

Call me contrarian, though, because in the intervening years, what I've come to realize is that technology (and media) just amplifies the social lack in some people. Blaming technology in and of itself is easy. We as a collective society are ultimately responsible for our actions, not technology. Need I mention all the positive applications of mobile devices? I select my gadgets fairly carefully, and they have to serve multiple purposes, or I won't buy them. While I may dislike my Palm Treo, for example, for specific reasons, I still get a lot of mileage out of the device. And if I put on my iPod's earpods as I walk across the street to catch a bus, without looking both ways, how is that the iPod's fault?

Is Wi-Fi Bad For Us?

George Ou of ZDNet writes about a UK woman who claims that Wi-Fi makes her sick. He then lays out a test scenario that he'd like to give her to prove that she can in fact detect when a Wi-Fi access point is present, like she claims. This isn't the first that I've read about something like this. Just about a month back, about someone in the UK - possibly the same woman - claiming they were getting headaches after installing a Wi-Fi router. This woman, Kate Figes, says Wi-Fi leaves her feeling exhausted, nauseous and sleepless.

Ou calls it "EMF junk science" but the WHO (World Health Organization, not the band that causes hearing loss) has an EMF project, due to public concern about health and electromagnetic fields. Figes isn't the only person claiming this. The WHO's brochure on EMF (PDF, 2 pgs) that "[no] major public health risks have emerged from several decades of EMF research but uncertainties remain." Maybe these people are the proverbial canaries in the coalmine of an cumulative illness that takes time to manifest.

I've certainly found myself more fatigued since installing my Wi-Fi router, but that could be for several reasons, including the fact that I always feel fatigued come Oct/Nov, during Daylight Savings Time change (or whatever it's called). As well, since installing my router, I also spend many more hours working on my computer than previously. Sleep is something I do because I have to. And lack of sleep gives me headaches. A few minutes outside in fresh air almost always seems to make a difference.

It's an easy correlation to assume it has something to do with Wi-Fi, but I'm certainly hoping it doesn't. Imagine what'll happen to the fledgling municipal Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi VoIP phone industry if it does.

Motorola On Acquisition Trend

Motorola recently bought Symbol Technologies, a well-known RFID equipment manufacturer. Now they've purchased [Law of Mobility] Good Technology, a make of e-mail mobility. Law of Mobility wonders if Moto will buy Palm next, and analyzes that scenario. My feeling is that while they might try, I can't see why Palm would sell, despite recent drops in quarterly earnings. Palm has its own name, built up over several years. Though it might give them a serious advantage over RIM and their Blackberry products.

Caller IP talks about the purchase as well, and mentions Radicati's report (PDF, 2 pgs) that wireless email will take off. But the market will be driven by Microsoft and RIM, according to the report. However, with Motorola's acquisition of Good, things might just change.

Sony What? Mylo? What's That?

I don't get the freebie gadgets that some of the other VoIP bloggers do, so if I want to test some phone or mobile device, I have to shell out my own cash. Interested in the VoIP capabilities of the Sony Mylo, I walked into my neighborhood Sony Style store late last week and asked the two young male clerks if they were selling it. They looked at each other, then one looked back at me with a bit a of sneer and said, "Sony what? It's replacing the Clio, right?" Uh, pardon me, but you work here, not me. (This is the second gadget store in the same mall with a rude young male clerk. And business owners wonder why some customers would rather buy online.) Diatribe over.

Then again, Luca says the Mylo's not for him. Andy likes the audio and quality and the fact that it has Yahoo Messenger. It also has Skype, which interests me. But he concludes that the novelty of the Mylo wore off for him. (Though some Mylo reviewer did use the Skype file transfer over Wi-Fi because the USB cable was missing.)

So maybe those two rude young idiots saved me some money. Fact is, I stopped buying Sony products since my cassette Walkman in the 1980s. The way I look at it, if I have to shell out a few bucks myself, I think I'm going to wait to see if Apple comes up with an "iPhone". There have been rumours about Apple's VoIP plans for a while, but it's questionable whether any new iPod this year will have VoIP.

My Phone Is Red Hot; Your Phone Ain't Diddly Squat

Patrick Barnard of TMCNet asks how much are you willing to pay for fast wireless mobile broadband? Lucent Technologies has done research that shows that both consumers and businesses are willing to pay a premium. The United States and Canada have only recently started rolling out 3G (third-generation) services such as HSPA (HSUPA/ HSDPA - or supa-dupa, as I call it) and EV-DO wireless broadband networks, whereas these are already available in other parts of the world.

But Russell Shaw (who seems to have cloned himself for other blogs) writes at IP Networked (a new GigaOm web property) that he's skeptical of EV-DO, mainly because market analysis shows that many 3G phone users "fail to understand [3G service] benefits." He says that he is actually subscribing to EV-DO service through SprintNextel, which gives him a discounted rate, but that ROI for him specifically might not be worth it.

For me, EV-DO is only a backup, at present. As an onine-based freelancer writer/ technoblogger, I need a "plan B" in case I have any problems with my cable broadband access, or in case I cannot find Wi-Fi network for my laptop if I'm mobile. While it's expensive and I cannot exceed a maximum of 250Mb/month bandwidth. But given that my revenue would disintegrate without it, if I couldn't otherwise access the Internet, it's worth every cent. And I can probably write it off as a legitimate expense against earnings. It's also good for me, since I plan to move next year, and having had lousy response time from cable installers in the past. EV-DO for me is a security blanket, albeit one that could be less tattered and a bit more comfortable - especially in the area of mobile VoIP, which it sucks badly in, at least on the Palm Treo.

Nokia Opens US Mobile Apps Research Center

Palo Alto, California, is the home of the new Nokia Research Center. Nokia has a three-agreement with Stanford University to jointly work on research projects for "collaborative mobile computing and applications". The four areas that their research will focus on are:

• Context-aware content and communities.
• Wireless grids.
• Advanced user interfaces and visual media.
• Innovation radio and sensor networks.

Nokia recently bought an RFID company, and with research into wireless grids and sensor networks, it's possible that they will work on crowdsensing applications. In such apps, each mobile phone would have an RFID chip capable of sensing some environmental condition, such as moisture or heat. Each handset would be a node on a wide grid. If such apps are feasible they could revolutionize local/ regional weather reporting, possibly even traffic reporting.

The research center will initially employ 35 researchers, with plans to expand to 100 or more. Nokia recently introduced a new wireless protocol called Wibree, which is a low-power connectivity protocol designed for small objects and possibly mobile phones. Whether Wibree will play a role in the Palo Alto research center is unclear. They have also been planning VoIP on their line of mobile phones for quite some time.

[additional sources: Press.XTVWorld]

VoIP Roundup - Tues Oct 31/06

Skype UK Calling: Not Free After All?
Skype recently announced a promo for UK customers. Spend £10 in Skype credit before the end of 2006, and you get 6 months of free SkypeOut from and to the UK starting shortly after you sign up. Except that some customers are still being charged for their SkypeOut.

Mobile VoIP Player Gets VC Financing
TalkPlus, a holder of patent-pending VoIP technology that provides telephony services for mobile devices, just received US$5.5M in Series A venture capital from Menlo Ventures. One of their offerings is a second number of cell phones, called the TalkPlus Number, which they feel is ideal for the online dating market. [via Saunders Log]

Glofiish Smartphone: Kooky Name But Offers GPS, Wi-Fi, And Skype
Why not cover all angles? The Glofiish smart phone covers all the hot features of the mobile domain: GPS, Wi-Fi, and Skype. It's powered by Windows Mobile 5.0. [via 21Talks]

Splish Splash I Was Skyping In Bath

I can't find the original page at the Skype site that I read, but here's another that says 75% of all UK Skype users have talked to people on the phone while in the toilet - some even in the bath, particularly women. I know someone years ago who did a radio interview (recorded, not live) while on the toilet, and his friend played it on her college radio show. But I digress.

The info is part of a survey that Skype did as part of their free Talk for Britain SkypeOut promo. This is the third region in the world where Skype is offering free calling to landlines for a limited time. The other two regions are France and North America (Canada, US only). Hong Kong also has free Skype-to-toll-free numbers only. Yahoo! had a holiday offering for East Indians on the past weekend for the Diwali festival: free calls from Yahoo Messenger IM (from North America?) to landlines in India. Russell Shaw wondered if this holiday/ promo trend would be the beginning of free VoIP calling all over the world. Jim Courtney asks if this new SkypeOut promo for the UK is a trend for SkypeOut.

I'm inclined to say yes. Skype had other promos during the summer, where people could call out from North America (Mexico excluded) to different countries (UK, Mexico, Japan) for a limited time frame each weekend during the promo. With the VoIP/ VoIM market suddenly becoming so competitive, we'll no doubt see more such promos, and maybe even some from Microsoft and AOL. Gizmo Project already allows free calling to landlines in 60 countries, provided the person you are calling is registered with them.

I know that I plan to get SkypeOut when the North American promo expires. However, they don't have local numbers in my area, and since I'm planning to move back to the big city next year, I'm still seeking the optimum VoIP service for me. Note to VoIP providers: I'm getting SkypeOut because I can pay with Paypal. I don't have/ use credit cards.

KISS VoIP

Luca riffs off of something Andy Abramson and the New York Times have said: some VoIP phones are difficult to configure. Now I haven't picked up a Wi-Fi phone yet, but judging from my experiences with various desktop and mobile VoIP apps this year, it appears that as I age, my tolerance level lowers for technology and applications that aren't a cinch to setup. Maybe its tech overload from all the research and writing I do, but there it is. I want my VoIP + VoIM simple, and no doubt those less technical than me do as well. KISS = keep it simple, stupid.

As Andy says, if VoIP Wi-Fi phones are not easy to configure, it'll only be early adopters and techies who use them, even if others purchase them. I'm thinking that if the term "VoIP" continues to be used, it might also discourage people. In fact, the NY Times piece is called "Phones for that other system." Some people/ companies are afraid to call it VoIP, preferring terms such digital phone, e-phone, internet phone, net2phone. Jane Hoskyn of Skype even goes as far as saying "Forgive me for rolling out that ugly word 'VoIP'..." I wouldn't go that far, seeing as 'VoIP' is a play on the word 'voice'. But nevertheless, simplicity and consumer-friendly terminology will aid IP telephony adoption.

Will VoIP For Coffee

Ted at MacVoIP talks about how he's been reduced to buying a cup of coffee at a cafe so that he'll have Wi-Fi Internet access. Me, I can't stand the smell of strong coffee - gives me a headache. So no cafes for me. But there's an old circular building at the nearby university, where school chums and I used to socialize on weekends during our college years. It's now a lounge and it has free Wi-Fi access (provided you are a student or alumni). So last year, when I was toying with the idea of a Master's and PhD, I'd go have a rum and coke and check my email between classes on Fridays. That was before I discovered VoIP, knowing only about MSN Messenger's voice call feature.

Now, there are tons of VoIP/ VoIM choices, and loads of free/ semi-free Wi-Fi hotspots all over the place. (The university library, but not most of the campus.) And with the number of municipal Wi-Fi projects growing by the week, it probably won't be long before the world at large is unwired. At which point Ted may not have to buy a coffee just to surf the net, and a significant percentage of the long-distance conversations in the world will be free. (Just make sure your university or other public hotspot isn't blocking VoIP, and that you are not transmitting sensitive details over unsecured Wi-Fi, or you might be the subject of an evil twin. Although some universities are embracing VoIP.)

Muni Wi-Fi update: Minneapolis, Minnesota plans to roll out city-wide Wi-Fi next year. Twin city St. Paul is not sure what approach to take.

Mobile Skype? For Some Phones

If you have a BlackBerry or a Windows Mobile PDA/ phone, you can now use Skype on them courtesy of EQO Communications. In fact, they support more than just Skype, including the more popular IMs: AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, MSN Mesenger, Yahoo Messenger. EQO already supports over 400 devices. See the press release for the full list.

Skype had announced last month that they were having difficulties getting Skype to work on some mobile phones, particularly Symbian, and that they were working on the technical problems. At the time I last tried EQO on my Palm Treo 650 (PalmOS, EV-DO), it didn't work for me. I'd been told a few weeks ago that Palm Treos were now supported. For technical reasons I won't get into (unrelated to EQO, I was unable to test it again at this time.)

VoIP Roundup - Thur Oct 26/06

Nextel Wireless Impersonates Speed Racer
Twenty-one metro areas in the US will be getting faster wireless Internet before or by late 2007, thanks to plans by Sprint Nextel Corp. They will be using EV-Do Rev A technology, which is supposed to enable video-conferencing. [via Kansas City Business Journal]

Real Chat In Advertising
Nuno reports that IBM plans to run two-way advertising, which lets you actually talk to them. I wonder if "truth in advertising" will stretch to VoIP.

Easy PBX Management: Just Add Browser
Want to manage your Asterisk IP PBX via web browser? VoiceOne 0.4.0, which is not only web-based but open source, lets you do this.

Comcast Choking?
Comcast may have the lead in cable VoIP subscribers in the US, but reports indicate that they are running into service outages in the Northeastern US. What's more, these outages seem to have started after Comcast started offering VoIP service only a few months ago. Maybe they'd better finish hiring those extra 4,000 employees. I don't have Comcast, but I'm finding that in the last couple of days that many sites with servers in the US have been difficult to reach.

17 VoIP + IPTV-Related Xmas Suggestions

If you are not already familiar with VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) or vVoIP (video and voice over IP), it's a means to voice and video calls from a computer. Most VoIP services also let you call to regular phones. VoIP is a great way to save money on long-distance calls, as PC-to-PC calling is free, as is some PC-to-phone calling. IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) refers to a variety of TV-watching services on the Internet, and loosely includes streaming video.

Here's a short-list of some things that might be nice to give as holiday gifts this year, for the VoIPr in your life. I am going purely on specifications and my knowledge, not necessarily because I've tried something (although I have tried some). These are in no particular order, and are not endorsements of any product or service. The suggestions are for both mobile and stationary VoIP calling.

1. VoIP soft phone. There are tons of choices for VoIP software, all free. Some IM (Instant Messaging) clients such as AIM Pro, Windows Live (MSN) Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger also have the ability to call out from computer to regular phones. Google Talk cannot, but if you add Talqer, you can.
2. Calling credits. SkypeOut credits for Skype, or the equivalent for SightSpeed, Gizmo Project, Hullo, etc. This lets you call from your PC/ Mac to a regular phone. Gizmo Project already offers a lot of free calling to landlines in 60 or more countries, but only if the callee is registered.
3. Call-In phone number. A "Call In" phone number for Skype, SightSpeed, Gizmo Project, Hullo, etc. With one of these, people can call you on your computer as they would your regular phone. Skype is limited in the cities that they support; SightSpeed has a bit more variety.
4. 1-800 number. SkyNET has a reasonable plan for internationally-accessible 1-800 numbers, which can be redirected to a VoIP Call-In number. If you live in an area where Skype or SightSpeed (or whatever) do not offer local phone numbers (for Call-In), you can get a SkyNet 1-800 number and redirect it to whatever Call-In number you get. SkyNet also has local numbers, but that means you have to purchase their VoIP calling plan instead of Skype's, etc.
5. Webcam. Mobile video may take a while, but desktop video calling is free and functioning, courtesy of SightSpeed and Skype. MTV's Total Request Live (TRL) even incorporates fan input via SightSpeed, right into the show. My suggestions: For a laptop, get one that clips on easily. For a desktop, get both a flat USB port and webcam with a "snake" cable, so that it's easily adjusted.
6. Microphone. You don't need an expensive one, if you are not doing podcasting. But most built-in mics on laptops are relatively low-quality. Alternately, you might want to give someone a headphone/ mic combo headset (#7) or Bluetooth headset/ earpiece (#10).
7. Speakers or headset.
8. New smartphone or PDA. Pretty much any new Nokia N or E series phones, most of which, I believe, support VoIP (properly). Some PocketPC or Windows Mobile-based devices might as well. I don't know all the specs on the RIM BlackBerry Pearl phone, but it is a cool phone. Many phones will allow "mobile VoIP" services such as EQO or Mino Wireless, etc., to function correctly. These services essentially call you back, once you activate a call, so your cost per call is only your cell minutes, plus the cost of your cellular Internet usage. Of course, if Apple actually releases the iPhone/ iSmartphone, that might be nice, too.
9. Cellular wireless data plan. Great for accessing the Internet from your mobile phone, and making mobile VoIP calls. Just make sure that an "unlimited" plan really is unlimited. Many cellular providers only allow 250 megabytes per month, and cut you off after that.
10. Mobility. Bluetooth earpiece or headset, to give your voipr some mobility around the house or office - or for hands-free operation while driving. Also nice for when it's cold out. You might want to test earpieces, as some chafe the inner part of the ear. A headset is another option, or the Motorola Bluetooth hat, or the Motorola/ Oakley Bluetooth sunglasses. But Bluetooth devices are not only more expensive than regular wired headsets, they eat power for lunch. And mobile phones operating in "find Bluetooth devices" mode will also need to be recharged more frequently. A new Nokia wireless protocol called Wibree may change that in the very near future.
11. Mobility, part 2. Wi-Fi VoIP phone - maybe even a Skype-certified one. That, or maybe a dual-mode Wi-Fi/ cellular phone. These are going to be hot, with all the municipal Wi-Fi projects going on all over the world.
12. Wireless router. If you want to be walking around the house while VoIPing, one way is to use a Wi-Fi phone. Depending on the type, you will probably need a wireless router attached to your broadband Internet connection. Most large office supply or consumer electronics stores have these.
13. VoIP call recorder. You may want to record VoIP calls for posterity, business reasons, or even interviewing or podcasting. HotRecorder is my fave, but there are lots of others. HotRecorder activates itself when a Skype call comes in - and it's supposed to work with other VoIP soft phones. It's only about US$15, but if your budget is running a bit thin, there's the free audio editor Audacity, which has to be manually activated, but works fine.
14. Business VoIP. An iBlue IP PBX, made with a Mac Mini. Great for that Mac-lover who also has a small business and wants to use IP telephony for communications. Or for a larger business (including call centers), there's Pika Technologies' bridge over troubled VoIP. It marries the Skype interface with Asterisk IP PBX.
15. VoIP knowledge. A copy of Ted Wallingford's VoIP Hacks, where he'll teach you to make your own iBlue with a Mac Mini and Asterisk software.
16. Cinema screen. For all the good little boy and girl voiprs, if they've been extra special this year, get'em a 50" Apple display, to watch both IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) and video calls via Skype or SightSpeed, at the same time as the do other stuff on the screen.
17. Plug'n'play VoIP adapter. Know someone who can benefit from inexpensive VoIP calls but does not like/ have/ want a computer? I know a few people like that. For them, you can get plug-and-play adapter/ router that (usually) configures itself once you plug in a broadband Internet connection, your regular phone line, and your regular phone. Of course, if you don't have a computer, why would you have broadband Internet? Well, if you have cable TV, for a bit more money each month, you can have broadband, and all on one bill. Your cable company will try to sell you their "digital phone" plan, but they usually charge a lot more. You'll have to decide.

Happy voiping.

VoIP Roundup - Wed Oct 25/06

Lessons In Mobility: Airline Wi-Fi Guide
On The Beach has a fairly comprehensive guide to Wi-Fi/ Internet access on airines, right down to actually listing airlines and the flight numbers. Not all access is free, but they've listed costs as well. If you're travelling, this should be a great resource. I'm assuming you should be able to use most Wi-Fi phones via these services, unless there's some sort of blocking. To accompany the airline guide, here's a bit about saving on hotel phone bills using complimentary Internet access.

(Sort of) Free Skype-to-Phone Calls In The UK
Live in the UK? Want free calls? Sort of. Buy £10 of Skype credit before the end of this year and you can call from your PC to a UK landline phone for the next six months. Not quite as free as the free SkypeOut calling in Canada and the US (until the end of this year), but reasonable. I suspect that a similar offer might be on the table for North Americans after Dec 31st. [Skype via The VoIP Weblog]

Can Gizmo Project Take On Skype?
Rich Tehrani talks briefly about Gizmo Project as a possible contender to Skype. Gizmo is SIP-based, an open standard. So any other SIP-based soft phone can communicate with it. Gizmo currently offers free calling to landline phones for around 60 countries, provided the person you are calling is registered with Gizmo Project. I wrote briefly about Gizmo Project vs Skype, a while back.

More About Mobile Video Calling

I may never have mobile video calling on my Palm Treo, but several bloggers have been engaged in a dialog about about its possibilities over the past week. Peter Csathy thinks mobile video calling will be big business. Andy Abramson seems to think it'll do better in Europe rather than the USA, which is car-centric. You don't want to drive and call at the same time, but on mass transit, which Europe is more geared to, it's not as much of an usability issue - as Andy says. Luca Filigheddu seems unsure, at least about the success of 3G mobile video calling. Jeff Pulver thinks it'd be rather useful. Ken Camp offers his thoughts.

Now not only are these people VoIP bloggers but they are actually involved in the VoIP/ IP Communications industry. Several of them are CEOs/CTOs or consultants for big clients. As Wayne and Garth might have said, "I'm not worthy to discuss IP communications with them," though not to Alice Cooper. I'm no longer in the telecom industry, except for writing about VoIP. I can only say that I think video calling will be great for anyone on the go who either has the discipline not to use it while driving, or who uses public transit. (Also great for real estate agents, to give guided remote tours, as Peter mentions in one of his posts, and as I have before, possibly elsewhere.)

I gave up a lot of things a few years ago when I changed careers to become a freelance writer, so I don't have a car anymore. My headspace has been either passenger or pedestrian for a good 3+ years. Hence, when I think about mobile VoIP and vVoIP (and technology in general), I sometimes forget about the driving- and- talking aspect. Having once been almost sideswiped by a woman who seemed to be trying to do her lipstick and talk on her cell simultaneously, I've always been cautious about driving and talking, preferring handsfree mode. (Now I have a Bluetooth earpiece, but no car :)

The only thing I can think of as a video analog to Bluetooth is to use HUD (heads-up display) goggles, which is part of my ultimate gadget wish list. Some HUDs are unobtrusive, allowing you to see the road ahead. However, that does not mean that they are not distracting. I cannot see anyone successfully driving and conducting video calls, with or without a HUD. A video display mounted in a car dashboard couldn't possibly be much better. However, at least that way, the video mode could be automatically shut off if the ignition is running - only the audio would function. When the ignition turns off (or switches to "park"), the video would turn on. It's mobile video calling, but probably not in the way that the other VoIP bloggers are talking about. Until our cars pilot themselves on roadways, mobile video calling might not do so well in North America.

Having said all this, I should clarify. Recently, I said I'm not keen on video on mobile. What I meant was watching mobile TV on a small screen. For mobile video calls, which would probably last only a few minutes, I don't see a small screen as an issue, and actually look forward to it.

VoIP Roundup - Mon Oct 23/06

Wi-Fi VoIP Setup: A Clarification
In a previous post, I talked about a municipal Wi-Fi service that had plans in the future to offer VoIP calling plans. A reader had asked about this, as it would seem you could just make a call from a Wi-Fi phone. I'd forgotten about the question until just now. My statement was based on what the press release stated. But assuming you have the right type of Wi-Fi VoiP phone, you should just be able to turn on your phone, access whatever VoIP service you have already signed up for (e.g., Skype on a Skype Wi-Fi phone). Unless, of course, calls are somehow being blocked.

Yahoo Messenger Video-Sharing Plugin
This has to be one of the strangest things I've seen. Yahoo! Messenger 8 has loads of plugins available at the Plugin gallery. There's one just recently announced, the video-sharing plugin, which has a huge red double circle stamped with "REVOKED" over it. No idea what that's about, but it would have been a pretty cool plugin.

8x8 Award VoIP Patents
VoIP Provider 8x8 Inc. was recently awarded two US patents for VoIP technology. The first is called "Voice Over Internet Processor", which is for a programmable audio processor chip for DSP (Digital Signal Processing) functions. The second patent is called "Sensor Controlled Telephone System", for a method to select a telephony operating mode. 8x8 has previously received other IP patents. [sources: Multichannel News, Sys Con]

What's Your Ultimate Electronic Media Gadget?

An ABC News article asks what electronic gadget you would pick if you had to pick just one. What would it's functionality be? Music player, web surfer, game device, instant messager, mobile phone, digital camera? Or a combo? Obviously, most people would like a combo, but if the fact that there are more cell phones in active use in the USA than landlines, communication is obviously an important aspect of personal electronics. (Compare this to the fact that only about 500,000 people had cell phones in the US in 1986. (My father had one of those big-ass brick-sized army-size mobile phones that he carried around. Portable yes, convenient no.)

Me? My ultimate gadget would be a hip- or wrist-worn device with Wi-Fi + Bluetooth + GPS capability, plus everything a web-connected PDA/ smartphone can do, but with vVoIP (video and voice over Internet protocol) ability. And a HUD (Heads-Up Display) that's unobtrusive, with voice-activation or some sort of Bluetooth glove. And it can't make you look like an ultra-geek. Or better yet, it'll have Wibree instead of Bluetooth. A tall order. What about you?

The Electronic Global Village Expands

First Singapore announced plans for implementing 2400 hotspots in Northern Singapore. Now Japan plans a giant wireless mesh network over 100 cities, resulting in open broadband access for over 50Mln people. Earlier in the year, Taipei City, Taiwan announced a wireless project to replace PSTN, with an aim of having 200,000 wireless VoIP phones for city employees by year end. And of course there's the countless other cities in the USA and other places installing their own municipal Wi-Fi networks, or just finishing the bidding process.

And with free or inexpensive municipal Wi-Fi, growing in abundance, there's expected to be a burst in sales of plain Wi-Fi or dual-mode Wi-Fi/ cellular phones. If ever there was a time to consider buying stock in wireless and IP-related hardware manufacturers, it's probably now. Just wait until after the US stock market crashes this November due to the mini-tech bubble that's formed.

Virtual GPS

Don't have GPS capability in your mobile phone or PDA? The Navizon Web API from Mexens Technology can pinpoint users by triangulating signals from nearby Wi-Fi access points. This location can then be used as a reference point to show the user additional location-based information such as nearby stores, banks and restaurants.

This functionality could be teamed up with the mobile click-to-call/ pay-per-call that Microsoft and Ingenio are now offering (jointly with Ingenio). It could be a great way to promote local businesses in cities that are offering municipal Wi-Fi. Given that cell phone use is expected to increase all over the world - particularly with dual-mode Wi-Fi/ cellular phones, there is likely to be a market for such services.

[sources: Wireless IQ, Biz Yahoo]

Microsoft's Click-to-Call

Google's doing click-to-call, so why not Microsoft? Ingenio and Microsoft have teamed up to offer a mobile version of click-to-call, which incorporates pay-per-call advertising on Windows Live Search for mobile devices. The pay-per-call advertising market is expected to reach nearly US$4Bln by the end of the decade, for mobile or otherwise. Essentially, advertisers get exposure in Windows Live Search, and if a mobile user clicks their link to find out more information about their products and/or services, then the advertiser pays Microsoft and Ingenio for the call. Example advertisers might be local businesses such as restaurants, hotels, travel agencies. [PR Newswire via Biz Yahoo]

VoIP Roundup - Mon Oct 09/06

VoIP Hacks
Congrats to Ted Wallingford on the publication of his book VoIP Hacks, which is out now. It has all kinds of tips to improve call quality, record calls, create special effects, and more. For example, a trick to sounding like Darth Vader. Might be great if a visher calls you. Silence!!! You begin to annoy me!!! I gotta get me to a book store. (Sorry, don't like buying books online, as I like tactile browsing.)

Virtual e911?
Tom Keating has a snortingly funny silly scenario about potential e911 confusion due to the Second Life online RPG (role playing game) having VoIP ability via Vivox and others.

Making Municipal Wi-Fi Work: Thoughts
The Pulvermedia website has a podcast of an interview with Don Fitzgerald, who is in charge of the municipal Wi-Fi project in Frederiction, New Brunswick, Canada. It's apparently the first city in Canada to offer free Muni Wi-Fi, although Toronto will probably be a close second. The interview is part of the series Canadian IP Thought Leaders.

Wibree: New Nokia Wireless Connectivity Protocol

Nokia has introduced Wibree, a short-range wireless connectivity protocol, which is complementary to Bluetooth and UWB. It's the culmination of five years of development and is ten times more energy efficient than Bluetooth. Wibree operates in the 2.4Ghz band, has a range of 10 meters, and a maximum speed of 1Mbps (megabit per second). (Bluetooth operates in the UHF above 6 Ghz.)

Instead of being used in cell phones, it would be in watches and possibly enterprise devices such as keyboards, mice and digital pens. Other possibilities are "wearables" such as intelligent jewelry. Nokia already has dula-mode cellular VoIP phones. I'm wondering if Wibree could be used for VoIP "communicator" badges that double as lapel pins or brooches - similar to Vocera's Call Badge.

[via CBR Online, CRN]

Single Geek Male Seeks Single Toll-Free VoIP Number

The VoIP Girl and others recently cancelled their Vonage account. VG is switching to something else. What VoIP service did she switch to? She hasn't decided yet, but it appears she has some choices, including using a virtual number call-forwarded to her softphone. She wants a local number (to her).

This approach could be interesting, but I'd want a single toll-free VoIP number. A few years back, just after I stopped working for a large telecom, I paid for a personal 800 toll-free number through their cellular division. It just happened that I did a lot of commuting: live in one city, work in two others, meetings for personal projects in others, hang out with friends in yet another, promote bands in still more. All in a single day or week. I didn't want people to have to spend a fortune trying to call me.

At first, I had a local cell phone number, but if I took that phone with me out of town and someone called me from my hometown, then it became a long distance charge for them. Then I got a second cell phone but with an area code in the city I spent most of my work day in. But that didn't quite work either. I then switched to a regional 800 toll-free number and my friends and business contacts were very happy. It only cost me about $35 per month, which beat the $200-300+ that I would have spent calling everyone myself. Except some weird politics developed between two big cellular providers and the 800 numbers on mobile phones option was cancelled in my area.

This was a whlie ago. Now I work almost completely from home, and don't travel much at present. Anyone I know that's geographically separated from me has a computer and I talk to them via IM (Instant Messaging), email, or a VoIP soft phone. Most of the time. But being the nomadic wanderer that I am, I'm planning to move yet again. Anyone I know locally right now would want to call me at my new town via a regular phone, not from a soft phone. (Don't ask. Maybe it's something in the water, but I can't convince anyone I know locally to get a soft phone. They don't mind IMs; soft phones they don't understand, or maybe don't like. Oh the shame.)

That means, to save everyone the long distance charges that would occur, I'd want a single call-in number linked to a softphone. Sure, I'll still have my Palm Treo 650, but it'll have a new local number after I move. I want something that isn't going to cost people money. Sure, Gizmo Project has a free 775 area code-based number, but that doesn't give you toll-free - as far as I can tell from the area 775 FAQ.

What I want is a single VoIP plan with a toll-free number attached to a quality soft-phone. Could be wrong, but I don't think anyone has that yet. This means that I'll probably have to get a landline (haven't had one in over 10 years) with an 800 number and forward it to a VoIP Call-In number. This isn't quite the same as VoIP Girl, since she wants a local number. I don't. I plan to be doing a lot of travelling before the end of this decade, for business and pleasure, and a single (toll-free) VoIP number would be best, for friends, family, and contacts. Of course, if I could get this number for fully-functioning mobile VoIP on my Palm Treo, I'd be even happier, and gladly pay for it. And before the end of the decade, please. Then I wouldn't have to worry about which VoIP soft client everyone was using.

Speaking of toll-free numbers, TipMonkies points to a site called Hardtofind800numbers.com. Speaks for itself, I think.

Skype Ubiquitous On Mobile Phones? Not Just Yet

So it's not just me. According to a CRN article, Skype on mobile phones and PDAs has some technical hurdles to cover before it'll function correctly. Skype CEO and co-founder Niklas Zennstrom specifically mentioned Symbian phones being more difficult than expected. PocketPC-based phones and PDAs do have Skype, but a lot of other mobile communication devices do not. Or when there is a Skype-related mobile solution, such as SoonR, there are still technical glitches, depending on your phone. So I can almost sympathize with Zennstrom.

In fact, Skype isn't really the only VoIP service having this problem of achieving ubiquity on mobile devices. I've had little luck getting anything to work on Palm Treo 650, a very specific phone. Mino Wireless works, and Chris from EQO says that EQO Mobile should work, too. (I'll try it this weekend.) But as for actual mobile Skype, well Niklas Zennstrom says that have nothing to offer yet and no timetable besides.

Too bad. I guess I'll be waiting with bated breath, and keep my outrageously expensive cellular wireless data network plan going in anticipation. Wonder how many additional active users Skype'll gain when they do go mobile? Maybe Skype needs to start acquiring a few companies with some of that US$2.6B they got from eBay last year. In the meantime, though, Skype-specific Wi-Fi and dual-mode phones do seem to work, so you might want to consider one of those for a bit of mobility.

Mino Wireless Reaches 100,000 Users

After seven months since they launched, Mino Wireless has reached 100,000 users. I wrote about Mino Wireless last month. Of all the mobile VoIP solutions I've tried, it's the only one that actually worked for me on my Palm Treo 650. Not only did it work (I used the complimentary free minutes), when I called my father on his landline (cordless phone), he said the call quality was far better than when I called him on Skype or even Hullo from my computer. Given that that's the case, I'm surprised more people have not signed up.

Despite Mino being the only one that's worked, EQO has promised me that in an upcoming revision of their service, they should be supporting Palm Treos as well. Like many mobile VoIP services, Mino works by temporarily using your Java-enabled smartphone/ PDA's cellular wireless connection to access the Internet and establish a call. It then gets off the Internet and gives you a chance to switch your phone back into cellular mode. You then receive a call from their VoIP bridging service. Once you answer, it calls your target party.

For other mobile VoIP providers, see Soft VoIP for your mobile devices or Skype for the mobile warrior.

More Mobile VoIP Solutions: iSkoot, Fring

There are a couple of recent mobile VoIP offerings that maybe noteworthy. First, Ken Camp talks about fring, a beta offering that is PC-free. It only works for 3G phones and allows mobile-to-PC calls to Skype and Google Talk, as well as other calling combos. It can be downloaded into your handset via SMS text messaging and all calls are free. Just pay for your cellular data network. Unfortunately, as it currently only supports seven Nokia phone models, I can't test it on my Palm Treo 650. Let's hope they follow up with other mobile phone and PDA support.

The other recent offering is iSkoot, also in beta, which is referred by a lot of VoIP/ comm websites as Skype-on-mobile phones. That's because it works with Skype. Fortunately, for me anyway, this one now offers support for Treo 650 and 700p PDA phones (in addition to Motorola, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson). Unfortunately for me, while trying to register with iSkoot, I was unable to enter my full Skype id. Curses!! Foiled again. How much effort would it have been for them to add a few more characters to the form field for Skype id? I'd have to register yet another Skype id just to try iSkoot.

Well, if none of these offerings are for you, there are a number of other mobile soft VoIP options for you mobile warriors.

Cellular VoIP vs Fixed VoIP

VoIP Central (via EFY Times) indicates that revenues from mobile VoIP will outdistance that from fixed VoIP in Europe and the USA, but especially in the latter, by 2012.

I think that there will be a fair bit of growth in business use of fixed VoIP, especially since communications costs for SMEs [VoIP Central] is expected to be reduce by 20-40%. This cost reduction can be enough to save a small business. As for cellular VoIP, there are a few solutions that work like a charm, but it has farther to go than either true (hard) VoIP (e.g., Vonage, SunRocket) or soft VoIP from a desktop or even laptop. However, SME and SOHO owners who see the benefit of fixed VoIP are likely to add cellular VoIP to their business comm toolkit, and then tell their friends about how much money they save. Hence, eventually cellular VoIP can most definitely outsell fixed VoIP.

Beyond 3G Communications

Web sites have already been throwing around the term 4G (fourth generation) as the successor to 3G mobile communications technology. But a bunch of biggies in the industry had a jam session recently to decide exactly what 4G should have. Silicon.com has a brief look at their ideas.

I'm thinking 4G will include GPS abilities for sure, as location-aware phones [Silicon.com] are expected to be a Euros 622 M business in Europe by 2010. In fact, GPS will be part of 3G phones as well, what with Nokia buying Gate5, a mapping company, and surveys showing that cell phone users want such features. But with Samsung already testing 4G tech, it'll be very exciting to see what else such phones will have - hopefully dual mode VoWiFi and cellular calling,

I suppose, however, that companies like T-Mobile will have to be convinced not to ban VoIP from its cellular wireless network.

Free Muni Wi-Fi In Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh officially has free municipal Wi-Fi in the downtown area as of yesterday at noon. The initiative was started by Mayor Bob O'Connor, who passed away due to brain cancer on Sept 1. It took US Wireless Online only two months to build the 60-site network. The FreeConnect service option allows a maximum of two hours per day at no cost. DayConnect offers faster access at US$7.99/day, $14.95/m, or $119.99/yr. VoWiFi (Voice over municipal Wi-Fi) service is planned for the future. [via Pittsburgh Business Times, Business First]

I don't know if that's a record implementation time for municipal Wi-Fi, but it sure sounds like it is. Wow.

Diamonds Are A Cell (Phone)'s Best Friend

Marilyn Monroe and dozens of starlets may have sung that "Diamonds are a girl's best friend", but cell phones might love them too. Or at least, cell phone owners. According to a combined academic and industrial research project, diamonds may help improve cell phone reception [Cellular News]. In particular, a new material called UNCD (UltraNanoCrystalline Diamond) could be used to make highly accurate tuning forks, which would dramatically improve reception and transmission of cellular signals.

The project is being conducted by the US Dept of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, and funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency). You know that when DARPA gets involved, initial applications will be of the military variety first. Such research, however, is unlikely to apply to IP telephony or even Wi-Fi communications. So such improved call quality wouldn't apply to mobile VoIP calls.

VoIP Roundup - Mon Sep 11/06

Yet More VoIP Acronyms: FoIP - Fax over IP
8x8, Inc., launched their new fax over IP service (aka FoIP) today. [via Sys-Con] They are not, however, the first company with fax support over IP. Other companies already offer support in their IP telephony routers. Companies like Tiger NetCom have VoIP adapters which will support fax.

Atreus Receives IP Telephony Award
Internet Telephony magazine awarded Atreus Systems their 2006 TMC Labs Innovation Award. [via Sys-Con]

New VoIP Services: ROK Viper
ROK Entertainment Group is offering ROK Viper, which they claim is the world's first free no-contract mobile-to-mobile VoIP application [The Engineer Online]. Though the service seems kind of limited as it apparently connects from a mobile phone via Bluetooth to a computer with broadband Internet access. Doesn't seem particularly mobile to me. ROK apparently also created technology for the first mass-produced mobile TV.

Skype Available In More Than 27 Languages
While Skype is officially only available in 27 languages, there are actually translations for Thai and several European languages.The translation work has been done by members of the Skype community.

The MP3/ Phone Player Wars

CRN Daily News brings up a good point regarding MP3 players. While most people, especially iPod owners, wouldn't give up the gadget they have, there are still millions of people that don't have a device and will probably eventually choose something. These are the people that companies like  Microsoft and Nokia are going after. Given that the digital music player market is dominated by iPod (75% in the US, 50% around the world), it's not going to be easy going for Microsoft and Nokia.

And then don't forget the rumour about the supposed iPod phone and some big Appple press conference in California for Sep 12. Word is, the iPod phone is actually ready for production [via O'Reilly Emerging Telephony]. Though would you pay $600 for it?

Social Networking For Networking + Communication Types

WIP Connector is a website that hooks up business partners focused in the areas of 3G, RFID, Wi-Fi and WiMax communications. It was launched by the Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP) and is designed as a social networking site. [via Silicon]

Full membership costs US$300; a partner membership costs $200 but is currently limited to MX Alliance, Ottawa Wireless Cluster, and WINBC (Wireless Innovation Network of BC) - at least two of which are Canadian. Let's see. A Canadian website (I think) charging US dollars for membership and being promoted on a British website (Silicon). That's IP communications for you: enabling the global village.

What Now? An iPod Phone? No VoIP?

Russell Shaw provides an informative two reasons why an iPod phone may not make a dent in the market. Question is, is there a market for it? I'd originally had no intention to get myself an iPod. However, my father recently opened up a bank account under certain conditions and received an iPod Nano for it. He gifted it to me, not having much use for it. While I don't generally listen to it during the day, I actually go to bed listening to it. And I'm addicted enough that I'm contemplating getting a widescreen video iPod, rumoured to be out soon. (I'm a TV/ film junkie, to the point of actually writing about it.) But an iPod phone?

Not sure I care. I have my beautiful Palm Treo 650, which can also display video content. Except that uploading content to it seems a chore compared with the ease with which iTunes lets me transfer audio to my iPod. (I used iTunes long before I got that iPod.) What's more, I can do mobile VoIP on my Treo (albeit with great effort to finally find some functioning solutions). Will an iPod phone be able to do that? Why would I change from the device that I already have (except for its bulk, I love my Treo).

Then there's the question of which cellular providers will offer coverage for the device. Apple has never been particularly fond of third parties taking any of their profit margin. It's the reason why there's a huge PC market and aftermarket and not so much of one for Macs. Apple has been very innovative, but they've also made mistakes. And while Russell doesn't go so far as to say that, I think that Apple would be making a mistake trying for this market. A better offering would be Wi-Fi Skype VoIP iPod (VoIPod) with video-calling, which could potentially wipe up the market with competitors' bottoms.

VoIP Call Quality Improvement Tips

I've gone over VoIP call quality issues a couple of times, including tips for improving quality. To reinforce some of those tips, here's my latest experience. I recently set up a wireless router at home, configured over my cable Internet service. Because I'm still having access problems on my laptop, I decided to start working off my desktop.

The desktop has dual processors and 1 Gb of RAM memory, and under a gigabyte of hard drive space left on C: drive. The laptop has a single processor and 512 Mb of RAM and at least 8 Gb of hard drive space on C: Both computers are running Windows XP Home edition.

I've only made two Skype calls from the desktop computer to a landline phone, but from the comment of the one person that answered, it seems that call quality is far better than similar calls from my laptop. I should point out that my current Internet connection is also faster than what I used for my earlier calls on the laptop. But even with my current wireless connection fluctuating in speed, call quality is better.

I also found that you do not need to use headphones, provided that you have a directional microphone that won't pick up the audio from your speakers. (I'm still using my $1 microphone. I'm amazed at how well it's performed so far.)

So to summarize, to maximize your VoIP call quality, use a fast computer with lots of RAM, and a fast Internet connection. If you're directly wired to the Internet via cable or DSL, that's probably better. But a wireless router configured to cable works fairly well, too. As for having a dual processor, it's not necessarily going to make a difference because not all software is designed to take advantage of it. My observation while running processor-intensive programs is that one processor will be closed to maxed out, and the other will be relatively idle. Win XP doesn't necessarily balance processor load.

Show Me The Money In VoIP - Even More Thoughts

Tele2 is handing out free wireless phones for customers who buy thirty euros of their Parlino Dial Out service. The phones are supposedly worth about 69 euros (approx. US$87). [via The VoIP Weblog]

Given that my laptop is actually overloaded with text/ VoIP IM clients, I'm declaring a moratorium on downloading more for now, so I'm not going to try Parlino's soft client just yet. However, Tele2 had a bright idea! Maybe some of the frree soft  VoIP companies such as Skype, etc., can learn something from this.

For example, I previously complained that despite my love of Sightspeed, the signup process just to try the client wanted all kinds of info including whether I wanted to buy a phone. To Sightspeed: great product, just take a cue from Tele2. Heck. I'd pay a similar amount of money for dialout if I got a free Wi-Fi phone in the deal. [Just make sure you use something like Paypal as an option.] Same goes for Skype, Gizmo Project, etc.

Hardware is one of the areas of VoIP where the money is. Give customers something tangible to associate with your service, and you might find them using your service more often. It's purely psychological, and just my hypothesis, but if I had a "free" Wi-Fi VoIP phone, I'd probably order more minutes after my initial minutes ran out, unless the call quality sucked. Otherwise, my free gadget would just be sitting around, and we wouldn't want that, would we?

If customers reloaded their callout minutes just once, VoIP soft client makers could probably cover the cost of the phone. If call quality is good and the device easy to use, then you just might have repeat customers. Hardware/ software combo deals like this could really push VoIP use.

Examples of VoIP Data Applications

Martin Geddes talks about an telephony industry mag called Receiver (sponsored by Vodafone). In his write up, he speculates on the idea of your voicemail being able to distinguish who a call is from, giving different people a different message.

Of course, if you've followed any of the recent posts here about data applications being where VoIP could really shine, you know that it's more than possible - probably already available. (I'm still looking).

In fact, since VoIP-based CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software can presumably retrieve customer records based on who is calling, I can't see why Martin's idea can't be implemented. That means you could have a single VoIP call-in number, usable on a Wi-Fi phone, to conduct all your conversations, business or pleasure.

Of course, in the scenario Martin was talking about, nightclubbing, you'd need widespread Municipal Wi-Fi if VoIP was to be in the equation.

We Need Better Cellular Wireless Data Plans

For the last two days, my regular Internet connection was unavailable. As a result, I was forced to eat up the bandwidth on my cellular data plan, to research and post articles here and elsewhere. No VoIP calls, no streaming media, no downloading of movies. Just pure browsing. Nothing outside of allowable activities.

My monthly bandwidth cap of 250 Mb/month is virtually gone in two days, leaving me only about 70Mb for the rest of the month. If I pass the 250 Mb cap, it's going to cost me about $3/Mb. At my current bandwidth usage rate, that's about $210-240/day of excess fees. Literally.

So I called up my cellular provider and begged for a better data plan, to no avail. It's the third time I've asked this year. They'd already rolled back their "unlimited" offer on PCMCIA laptop "data cards". No more unlimited access. And nothing better than 250 Mb/mth.

But it got me to thinking about how expensive Internet access, hosting, etc., used to be even just five years ago. Prices eventually went down as the actual market size increased. At the current rates of cellular wireless data plans, it's just too expensive to want to make VoIP calls on a smartphone/ PDA. Unless you use something like MINO Wireless, which keeps the Internet access during a VoIP call to a minimum.

Otherwise, forget about mobile VoIP with soft clients running on your mobile device. For now, at least. Maybe, in the near future, when mobile telecoms get on board with VoIP, we'll see more favorable rates for data plans.

VoIP Roundup - Wed Aug 09/06

Jeff Pulver (Pulvermedia) and Paul Kaputska have just launched Vonosphere, a website dedicated to voice- and video-on-net news. Jeff is a very proactive person who writes letters to politicians regarding issues such as net neutrality. Congrats to both of you on the new site. [via IP Inferno]

The pricey (US$350) new Mylo from Sony, like the HyunWon Boxon, is a combo consumer electronics gadget. But it actually has VoIP, in the form of Skype. [Sony via Engadget, The VoIP Weblog]

Vonage has come up with a way to offer real e-911 access to their customers. The service ties the caller's phone number with a phsyical address. [via Xchange Mag]

Cindy Waxer of TMC Net says that VoIP job opportunities abound. So, she says, forget about become a doctor or lawyer. Apparently,  the second-fastest growing occupation is in the area of network systems and data communication analysis, right through to 2014. Job numbers will increase by 55%.

VoIP in the enterprise to date relies on WANs (Wide-Area Networks), but deployment's been a headache for some network managers. That's because VoIP is a demanding application in terms of network usage and traffic patterns. [via TMC Net] An alternative is to deploy VoIP over MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) networks.

VoIP Roundup - Tue Aug 08/06

Looking for work in the VoIP field? 2it Consulting is looking for a Pre-sales Engineer with Cisco VoIP/ IPT (IP Telephony) experience for one of their clients in the Sydney, Australia area. [via IT Wire]

Jajah has added Australia and New Zealand to its list of free-call countries that can have free phone-to-phone calls using Jajah's VoIP bridge. [via m-net]

The Philippines government has an interest in VoIP and wants to build intranets for its use. Several government agencies are said to be buying switches for installation. Once the VoIP intranets are built, the next step will be to hook into commercial telephony networks in the Philippines, but not until they offer VoIP services as well. [via Inq7] This is an interesting approach, and one I assume the VoIP-over-municipal-WiFi project in Taiwan is considering as well.

Apparently, Skype will have an official version available for MS-Windows Smartphone 2003-based mobile smartphones/ PDAs. (Note: there is already a Skype client for Windows Pocket PC-based devices.) The bonus for owners of dual-mode phones is that they'll have a choice of Skype over either Wi-Fi or 3G - a sort of DIY converged service. [via Red Herring] It'll be interesting to see how fast they'll come out with a Mobile Linux version, once Mobile Linux for PDAs actually exists.

First there were Skype-certified Wi-Fi phones, now Alpha Networks is offering Google Talk-enabled Wi-Fi phones. Google's GMail will also be supported. [via Asterisk VoIP News]

VoIP From A Cell Phone With MINO Wireless

Dr. Watson? It's MINO. MINO Wireless is a new VoIP service for smartphones and PDAs that have cellular wireless data connections to the Internet. Calling between forty countries is supported, for approximately 2 cents per minute. Besides PSTN phones,  MINO works on Java-enabled cell phones, or those with a WAP-based web browser. [via The VoIP Weblog, VoIP Monitor]

Most cell phones/ PDAs that can surf the internet will support WAP. MINO is also carrier-independent, so presumably this service will work for nearly any cell phone or PDA. Right now, they have a couple of promos. For those hesistant to use the service, the software is free and you get a trial of 30 minutes worth of free calls. MINO-to-MINO calls are half-price. If you like the service and refer friends, you'll get US$1.00 for each referral.

As it's my job to test as many services as possible, I signed up. The process is relatively simple, and they seem to support a lot of phone manufacturers. My cellular carrier was not on the list, but the info provided AFTER sign-up shows that GSM phones can download software and CDMA phones can use the WAP site. (This is in fact partially incorrect, as I found out later.)

Since my carrier uses CDMA for the Palm Treo 650 (with 1xEV-DO wireless), I can only report on my experience in that regard. And unfortunately, as seems to be the case every time I try VoIP services on my Treo 650 (CDMA), it didn't work from the WAP browser.

But their website instructions are slightly incorrect (as I found out afterwards). So I went to their regular website, entered a couple of phone numbers I'd be calling from, including Treo's mobile number, then tried a couple of calls. I was finally able to do a PSTN-to-PSTN call successfully, but after several tries, I nearly gave up on involving my Treo in the equation.

Actually, being the stubborn sort that I am, I then sent MINO support an email, and they got back to me nearly immediately. (Thanks to Jim + Ray at MINO for their help.) After a few emails exchanged, MINO Support helped me figure out the right way, at least for my set up.

First, I had to download their Java application and install it to my Treo (despite the signup instructions for CDMA phones). Then, when making a call, I had to wait 30 seconds for the call to connect. What I also had not done is switch my Treo from data to phone mode. Doh!

Finally, using the MINO Java app on my Treo, I punched in the number I was calling and waited until the call connected. Then I switched over to phone mode on my Treo. MINO called me, then dialed my father. Success! I felt like Alexander Graham Bell. Finally, success using VoIP on a mobile device!! I could hear my father clearly, and he could hear me.

In fact, he said that call quality was far better than my previous calls to his landline from Skype. As a result of the call quality, he actually plans to use MINO and some of the other similar services, such as Jajah, for phone2phone long distance use. (Gizmo Project requires that the party you're calling has registered as well, which won't work for him.) However, he's a bit more reluctant to use pc2phone services because he doesn't like the call quality. So to paraphrase a popular candy's catchphrase, quality mobile to phone VoIP calling does exist.

VoIP Roundup - Wed Aug 2/06

MediaRing in Singapore will be offering "prefix-3" VoIP phone numbers. These numbers can receive calls from both PSTN and mobile phones as well. [via ChannelNews Asia]

Verizon had just reported a loss of US$500 million between Q1 and Q2 of 2006. A story in today's New York Times confirms this. Verizon is the USA's No. 2 local phone carrier, just behind AT&T. Qwest, the fourth largest carrier, also reported losses due to VoIP/ Internet telephony compared to a year ago. Both companies stated that increased sales of broadband and wireless services dampened the losses slightly. [Aside: As I was about to post this roundup, CNBC TV showed a video segment about New York's over-taxed electric grid, and how Verizon is helping out with hydrogen cells.]

Now here's a company who understands unlimited Internet usage from a cell phone. The UK's T-Mobile is offering rates of less than a penny per kilobyte, with a maximum charge of 1 GBP (Great British Pound) per day. It's all free after that, for the rest of a day. They're also not limiting what sites you visit, but proof of age is required for access to adult sites. Unfortunately, this service is only available for two phones: the Motorola v3 RAZR and the Nokia 6131, with other handsets promised soon. [via The Register]

Infonetics Research, in their VoIP Services report, says that VoIP service revenue has doubled between 2004 and 2005 in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific. In these regions, from 2005-2009, It's expected that US$120 billion will be spent on VoIP services. [via Infonetics]

VoIP Inc. has just launched their VoiceOne Lab Development website as a showcase for their new VoIP technology and projects. [via New Telephony] Interestingly, the project page has something called the gTalk Mobile Client. Should be interesting to see who has the rights to that name, as some people use GTalk to refer to Google Talk's IM client.

VoIP Roundup #4

Skype will be getting SMS text messaging services courtesy of Mobile 365. The latter company already delivers 2 billion messages monthly. [via Biz Journals] Skype had already added a free SMS service in early 2005.

The Inquirer (British) thinks that Microsoft's real threat is Skype.

With all the inexpensive means of publishing content, citizen journalism is on the rise. People are recording war footage in the Middle East with their cell phones and posting the content to websites, including YouTube.com, as a way to share what the "camera person" is experiencing. Some even write a description, to express all the feelings. [via SF Gate]

New Zealand's Woosh wireless has broadcast rights from Sky TV to provide Internet TV using its WiMax network. [via NZ Herald] IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) is the next frontier in multimedia content over the Internet, with tests being conducted worldwide, including the US, India, China, and elsewhere, supposedly causing fear in cable TV companies.

Market Clarity, a telecom research firm in Australia, has a free online directory listing VoIP providers in that country. [via IT Wire]

Batelco in Bahrain has expanded VoIP calling from five destinations to over 200. They've also reduced rates for their international VoIP-based calling cards. These cards are valid for calls from PCs, PSTN lines, and cell phones. [via Trade Arabia]

Unlimited Cell Phone Data Plan? - Mmm, Not So Much

Nate Anderson has a great overview of how unlimited "unlimited" 1xEV-DO (=EVDO = Evolution-Data Optimized) wireless data plans on cellular phones really are. He mentions Verizon, but what he says holds true with a lot of providers.

EVDO is the wireless data network that some CDMA-based cell phones use, in a number of countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Canada and the US. (The Wikipedia link above has a fairly comprehensive list of carriers, phones and laptop data cards which use EVDO.)

If you have a smartphone or PDA that uses CDMA, the wireless data plan available is likely to be EVDO-based. If you've purchased, or are thinking of purchasing, an "unlimited" monthly data/ wireless plan, check your provider's fine print. More than likely, there's a bit of text that says you cannot use the service for VoIP, streaming music or video, and several other purposes.

When I called my service provider recently to upgrade to the "unlimited" plan, he told me that not only was that plan grandfathered, it had only ever been available on the laptop data card, not my Palm Treo 650. I insisted that the sales rep had said otherwise, but the rep wouldn't budge. So I ended up witha plan offering only 250 Mb/mth bandwidth, for something like $100/m. Ouch.

Consider that one day, when I had trouble with my regular Internet connection, I used my Palm Treo 650's EVDO connection, via a Bluetooth USB adapter (different from a Bluetooth headset) as a modem, from my laptop. In a regular half-day's web browsing for researching my daily articles, I used nearly 90 Megabytes. In a half day. No streaming music or video. Just one test of VoIP, because I was writing about a service.

Note: CDMA phones cannot use the phone and the wireless connection simultaneously, which usually means not being able to use most VoIP software directly on the device.

Obviously cell phone data plans are not for power web surfers like myself, but it sure would be nice to have options for a bigger bandwidth plan at a better.

Dual-Mode Skype Phones To Come

Not satisfied with the Skype WiFi VoIP phones already announced by four companies (SMC, Belkin, Netgear, Edge-Core), Skype is working with other manufacturers to produce dual-mode phones for later this year.

Current parnters for these GSM/ WiFi dual-mode phones include Nokia and Motorola. Surprisingly, I didn't see this announced on Skype's website. One of the issues still to be worked out is whether the dual-mode phones will be released SIM-free, or whether they'll be able to work out deals with cellular providers. I hope it's the latter, as this sort of Skype experience would be more seamless than some of the current efforts to run Skype on smart phones, including PDAs such as Palm.

While GSM isn't going to be to everyone's liking, this is the kind of step forward that is likely to catapult Skype to the top of the VoIP market share, regardless of service category, and help them earn their keep. (Remember that eBay purchased Skype for US$2.6 billion.) Hopefully they'll be following up with similar announcements for other types of cellular networks.

Sources: [via Silicon.com]

Could RFID Transponders Be Used For VoIP e911 Caller Verification?

If you've been following our sister publication, RFID Gazette, you'll know about a new type of RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag called RuBee with IP addressing capabilities. This means that if an SED (Service-Enabled Device) is equipped with a RuBee tag, it could be accessed via the Internet. This could be a potential solution for the VoIP e911 problem.

SEDs could be any networked device, including a digital camera, digital toaster, digital lighting system, etc., which can communicate with each other, based on predefined roles. What this also means is that if a transponder with a RuBee tag were devised, it could potentially be used as a means of directing and responding to VoIP-based e911 emergency calls.

Now this is pure speculation, and there are still a lot of technical issues that have to be solved. For example, RuBee-based transponders would have to be stationary and thus not attached to VoIP phones or to any mobile device such as a laptop or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). However, any device used to make a VoIP call would have a RuBee tag to transmit emergency status to the nearest transponder. The transponder would be designed to route the call appropriately.

This means that each transponder would have to be geocoded, possibly in sync to a postal/ zip code grid. Alternately, in cities with Municipal Wi-Fi, e911 transponders could be integrated wherever signal boosters are installed. That at least helps narrow down where a call is coming from, even from a VoWiFi phone. Finally, household or neighborhood transponders could also be made available, for those interested. Of course, in the latter case, you wouldn't want the transponder accessible to just anyone over the Internet. Just speculating.

VoIP Over Municipal Wi-Fi

Telecom companies these days have VoIP to contend with from not one but two fronts. VoIP is already disrupting both landline and cell phone revenues, causing telcos to reduce their prices.

Now, with numerous cities and even countries pushing for either paid or free Municipal Wi-Fi, telcos also have to contend with the potential loss of revenues from their Internet Service Provider divisions. This isn't just an American problem, it's widespread, worldwide issue, even reaching the Pacific islands, which include Fiji, Micronesia, etc.

What's more, telcos now have to deal with the loss of revenues that will result from the use of VoIP over Muni WiFi. In fact, several cities are pushing for wireless VoIP services, including Taipei, Taiwan. American telcos could learn a thing or two from the Taipei WiFly/ EasyCall project. It's the collaboration of the city government and the Taipei Computer Association (TCA), and is overseen by several ITSPs (Internet Telephony Service Providers).

Traditional telcos should be thinking about modifying their offerings to become ITSPs and even collaborating with or buying out existing VoIP providers. Especially if other cities start thinking like the Taipei government, who are using wireless VoIP to replace their PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) for administrative offices and public schools. Their aim is to have 200,000 wireless VoIP phones by year's end.

Obviously, if Taipei pulls this off, and figure out how to handle e911 calls, especially when there are school children at risk, other cities are going to follow suit. And if telcos don't find a way to participate, there's going to be some explaining to do to shareholders. In fact, I'm a strong believer that telcos could play an important role in solving e911 technical issues. If you can't beat ITSPs, join'em.

Nintendo Wii and VoIP?

Rumors are afloat that the yet to be released Nintendo Wii would double as a VoIP device. If the rumor gets backed by facts then this would demonstrate the entrance of broadband phone technology into the mainstream and would set a bar for the other higher priced consoles.

It is expected that the remote would be having a microphone and the remote would be able to store a user's phone book. This would certainly enable players to communicate with each other while playing games online. So get ready for the Nintendo VoIP.

Via [voipnews]

Globetel Wireless to deploy wireless network in Russia

Globetel Wireless will be deploying wireless communication networks in 30 Russian cities. The company will offer broadband, VoIP, and DECt technologies. Globetel Wireless will be paid $ 600 million by the Russian company Internafta. The deployment will begin with the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Globetel will be using its Hot Zone 4010 equipment for the network. It had demonstrated this equipment to the Russian government and telecom department in October 2005. The maintenance of the networks will be managed by Globetel, which will also hold 50% of the shares in the company. The network is to be implemented in three stages in the next twenty seven months.

BTHP-620 from Celllink

Celllink has announced a wireless phone for Skype. The BTHP-620 Bluetooth phone is as small as a credit card, is easy to carry, and allows users to communicate via Skype without being bound to a PC. Lexy Pacific Corp will market and distribute the phone in the US where it will be available in March 2006. The BTHP-620 will cost $ 129.00. prweb.com reports:

The company will exhibit its full line of BlueTooth products at the Consumer Electronics Showcase (CES) January 5 - 8, in the Las Vegas Hilton Ballroom, booth 54007.

Read More: Cellink Introduces Wireless Handheld Bluetooth Phone for Skype Users

Wi-Fi videophone chipsets from Broadcom

At the ongoing CES at Las Vegas, Broadcom has displayed Wi-Fi videophone chipsets for desktop video IP phones. The chipset offers features that are essential for voice and video communication of high quality.

It supports standards H.264 and H.263, video rates of up to 30 fps as well as QCIF to CIF full-duplex video resolutions. zdnet.com reports:

The solution is currently in production, and the platform is being displayed here at CES.

Read More: Broadcom readies chipset for video IP phones

STMicroelectronics to help the EWC

STMicroelectronics will provide its expertise to the Enhanced Wireless Consortium (EWC) for the development of an IEEE high-speed wireless standard referred to as next-generation Wi-Fi. STMicroelectronics has experience in the field of system-on-chip (SoC) technology. voip-magazine.com reports:

The EWC, formed in October, has promised to improve the performance of wireless local area networks through industry-wide support of its standard specifications, based on MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology.

Read More: STMicroelectronics Joins EWC

NomadicONE from BridgePort

BridgePort Networks, which offers SIP-based VoIP, has been endeavoring consistently to deploy IMS for smooth call transfers between mobile and VoIP networks. The company will soon introduce its NomadicONE IMS Convergence Server or ICS. The ICS will facilitate cellular/Wi-Fi handoffs in a seamless manner. The handoffs will be executed as per the 3GPP and 3GPP2 requirements. wi-fiplanet.com reports:

Not only can the NomadicONE ICS provide access to IP Centrex services over your mobile phone, Jhawar says, the reverse is also true; your cellular phone's services can be made available at your desk, whether you're using a single multi-mode phone or multiple devices.

Read More: BridgePort Networks Announces VoIP Developments

Verso Technologies test VoIP on IEEE802.16a network

Verso Technologies Inc has conducted a successful trial of its VoIP products that were operated on a pre-WiMAX (IEEE802.16a) network. The trial was carried out by Telkom South Africa (SA) and Saab Grintek Technologies, which is Verso’s partner. In the course of the trial, Wi-Fi-compatible PDAs were provided access to PSTN via CPGs and routed to the Telkom central office by using WiMAX technology. Class 4 and Class 5 softswitching and gateway technologies (BHG2500) from Verso were used in the trial. home.businesswire.com reports:

WiMAX is a standards-based wireless technology that provides high-throughput broadband connections over long distances. WiMAX can be used for a number of applications, including "last mile" broadband connections, hotspots and cellular backhaul, and high-speed enterprise connectivity for business.

Read More: Verso and Saab Grintek Complete VoIP Trials

Enhanced WAN appliance from Streamcore System

Streamcore System, a WAN optimizer company based in Paris, is enhancing its WAN appliances by adding adaptive real-time application behavior monitoring to the appliances. commsdesign.com reports:

The ABBA software module in StreamOptimizer 4.1 will allow more finely grained quality-of-service control at the session layer, using weight-based algorithms to adjust prioritization schemes in real-time.

Read More: Real-time adaptive software hits WAN

Feature-rich WLANs

The growth of wireless LAN has prompted vendors to come up with upgrades that offer features such as intrusion detection, wireless VoIP, etc. The changes should allow the network administrators to exercise greater control over the management of the WLAN infrastructure. AirDefense will be introducing the AirDefense Enterprise 7.0. It will gather and archive data in order to help in discriminating between normal and dangerous activity.

AirDefense Enterprise 7.0 consists of radio sensors, a rack-mounted security appliance, etc also has a data store referred to as Intelli. 200 days of data can be stored by the device. Upon detecting a new device on the WLANs, the product gathers data regarding the behavior and features of the device and compares it with the behavior of access points in the vicinity. networkworld.com reports:

Also new is a client program that can be downloaded to corporate laptops, where it can enforce a range of WLAN security policies when users are tapping into public wireless hot spots or a home WLAN.

Read More: WLAN products undergo facelift

Setting up a wireless LAN

Setting up a wireless network at home is as easy as plugging a wireless router into an available Ethernet drop. However, in an enterprise a wireless WLAN needs to be planned and designed, once that happens setting up a network is easily accomplished.

Wireless networking has been adopted enthusiastically by verticals including healthcare and retail. However, its ease of deployment is offset by factors like the existing network infrastructure that may require and upgrade. Wireless WLANs are also gaining in popularity as more companies move toward VoIP.

Wi-Fi deployments are a function of a company’s requirements; the wireless networks may or may not be linked to the wired networks. This has implications for network security; an integrated network leads to access and security integration. mobilepipeline.com reports:

"But you do have to define how you will do security for the WLAN and for the network as a whole. There are new standards out there, but no one's using them right now, so this is something you have to think about."

Read More: Ten-Minute Guide To Setting Up A WLAN

Wi-Fi meshes cheaper than LAN cables

Wi-Fi APs can be configured such that Ethernet is no longer required. The Wi-Fi APs function as self-configuring routers capable of creating multihop meshes. These meshes can overcome network congestion and physical obstructions. The major players in this field include Tropos, BelAir, Strix and Firetide. Interoperability between products manufactured by these companies will not be possible till the 802.11s standard gets incorporated into the products.

Wireless meshes offer greater flexibility, are comparatively inexpensive than LAN cables and T1 services, and less prone to outages. However, their proprietary technology will not allow them to scale to applications that require a very high bandwidth. Thus, even though Wi-Fi meshes are cheaper and more flexible, they will not completely overshadow the Cat 5 cables. Wi-Fi meshes operate with IEEE 802.11 clients and connects the access points.

The Wi-Fi mesh is not a P2P network as it does not connect every phone and use it as a router. Temporary offices that require connectivity can consider meshed Wi-Fi, also since it is difficult to find wired connectivity in an outdoor environment; most vendors are targeting this space and coming up with outdoor systems. Also, the new FCC regulations regarding DSL are the reason behind ISPs having to turn to wireless. Public Wi-Fi networks being developed by various municipalities are another opportunity for this technology.

Tropos Networks and BelAir Networks focus on government projects but are also available for use by enterprises. Strix Systems and Firetide were initially active only in the indoor systems market but have now increased the scope of their operation to include outdoor systems. An elementary Wi-Fi mesh will have the clients and APs using the same frequency channel; although this results in lowered AP cost it also reduces the bandwidth. The clients have to contest with one another in order to use the bandwidth. As these meshes are basically single radio systems, reception and transmission cannot occur at the same time.

Every additional hop reduces bandwidth by half, which affects the speed of voice and data transmission. The single-radio system has found acceptance with government networks because it is a low cost alternative. However, for enterprise use, dual- or multi-radio networks are preferred. mobilepipeline.com reports:

Currently, metro-area vendor BelAir is the only player to sell both single-radio and multi-radio systems, designating the multi-radio gear for the network core and the single radios for the edge. Firetide sidesteps the issue entirely by including an Ethernet hub instead of an AP for client connections.

Read More: The Rewards And Perils Of Meshing With Wi-Fi

Wireless IP PBX from Samsung

OfficeServ Wireless, a wireless IP PBX, has been launched by Samsung. It is based on the OfficeServ 7200 platform and uses the model 100 and 500 iDCS. OfficeServ Wireless runs at a frequency of 2.4 GHz through a WLANs and uses a WLI card, a wireless access point, and the WIP 500M wireless IP handset. The wireless IP PBX can be programmed through a networked computer and can support 240 wireless instruments.

Vonage F1000

The Vonage F1000 is a wireless home phone that helps to provide Internet telephony without the wires, when in proximity of an 802.11b network. The instrument has been developed with help from UTFStarcom Inc.

Security threats for wireless networks

Wireless networks are also exposed to the same security hazards as conventional wired networks. Sophisticated mobile devices can compromise wireless networks by exposing them to DoS attacks and interception attempts. The increase in adoption of wireless networks within enterprises and the use of mobile technology to aid business and personal work will lead to greater security concerns. This could result in infrastructure security becoming a key point in distinguishing service providers.

Since the nature of threats is diverse, it is not possible to cover all security angles with a single strategy. Service providers adopt a multi-layered approach to secure wireless networks. Aspects of security such as user authentication, encryption, policy controls, etc need to be managed in such a way that user experience is not compromised. The multiservice security gateway is a platform that enables security of wireless networks without compromising on the scalability and availability. securitypipeline.com reports:

To ensure data integrity and confidentiality for their wireless services, mobile operators must protect and secure the wireless transmissions to their network, and, more importantly, insulate and secure the core network infrastructure from potential security threats.

Read More: Three Security Perimeters Needed For Secure Wireless

Wi-Fi phones releasing shortly

Even as there is an increasing excitement regarding phones that will be able to roam between wireless LANs and cellular networks, there are several developers who are concentrating on improving the quality of voice over Wi-Fi.

SpectraLink will soon launch a handset that will support the IEEE 802.11a standard. Currently, the Wi-Fi phones supplied by SpectraLink work on 802.11b and operate on the 2.4GHz radio band. Appliances such as microwaves also operate in the same band. The chances of interference are reduced with 802.11a as the 5 GHz band in which it operates is less crowded.

Symbol Technologies Inc. is working on a PDA/phone, the MC70, which will support 802.11a, b, and g. The instrument is due in the first quarter of 2006 and will be equipped with a quad-band radio. This will enable it to function with GSM networks around the world. The MC70 is an improvement in terms of greater radio support and durability.

VeriSign Wireless Commerce Suite

The VeriSign Wireless Commerce Suite introduced by VeriSign will enable wireless carriers to provide converged services in a quick and efficient manner. tmcnet.com reports:

The VeriSign Wireless Commerce Suite creates an order-to-cash system for provisioning, billing, content delivery and settlement of wireless services. It provides the ability to combine post- and pre-pay functionalities for voice, data and content, which helps carriers offer consumers pay-per-use and pay-in-advance options.

Read More: VeriSign Wireless Commerce Suite

WiMax deployments by Intel

Intel is making heavy investments to develop its idea of WiMax that will cover large areas. Mobilize Taiwan (M-Taiwan) is a project worth $ 1.12 bn between Intel and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan. The ministry will extend its support in conducting field trials and help businesses that wish to participate in the process of deploying WiMax.

Intel is also deploying WiMax in 13 locations in Europe, North America, and South America. Intel is being assisted by companies like Alcatel in the process of deploying WiMax. The Intel PRO/Wireless 5116 broadband interface processor is used for the equipment. WiMax is already being employed for high speed Internet telephony and linking educational institutions and work places in countries such as Austria, France, Finland, etc. Intel plans to deploy WiMax broadband networks in Southeast Asia as a part of its Asian Broadband Campaign. Philippines and Thailand will conduct trials by the end of 2005.

According to Intel, WiMax can be an alternative to connect remote areas that have not been covered by DSL and cable. If a base station is in line-of-sight, WiMax can offer a range of 31 miles. Companies such as Samsung, Fujitsu Electronics, and Cisco are also in favor of the 802.16 standard.

Rogue APs

Companies that deploy wireless networks have to guard against rogue access points (AP). The first step to guard against unauthorized access is to have a policy in place. Rogue access points that originate within the office premises are generally not malicious in nature even though they offer unauthorized access to a company network. An “evil twin” AP impersonates a genuine AP and can trick unsuspecting employees into parting with their user IDs and passwords and also critical company data.

Overlay systems can be deployed to sniff for rogue SSIDs. In-built systems in enterprise APs sniff for rogue APs by comparing the MAC addresses with a database that lists the authorized APs. Companies that invested in wireless networks during the early days may not be fully equipped to handle rogue APs. Also, there are enterprises that have an environment of wired and wireless network. Such companies should ideally invest in intrusion protection systems (IPSes).

Security in wireless networks

The increased use of wireless networks has necessitated security of the back-end as well as the front-end. The concept of end-to-end security makes it necessary that companies first define their security objectives before allocating resources for the deployment of firewalls, encryption, anti-spam, anti-viruses, etc.

The continuous merger of technologies enables interoperability and allows employees to stay connected. At the same time it also increases the possibilities for the transfer of viruses. A comprehensive security policy should be implemented. The policy should cover issues such as permissions, upgrades, access, breaches, etc.

802.1x technologies offer security because access to the WLAN possible only if the user possesses an authentication key. The technology works in environments that have both wired and wireless networks. Encrypting data like customer information, company data, etc helps to maintain privacy even if a mobile device is stolen or misplaced. For highly critical data, a 128-bit encryption key is preferred in the industry. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) should be used with the VPNs in order to authorize access to sensitive applications. Thus, as marketing personnel do not need to know customer credit card numbers, their access to the credit card database can be blocked.

Endpoint scanning technology is useful for recognizing the wired and wireless devices accessing a network. Remote devices trying to access an enterprise network may introduce viruses into the network. This is because very often the devices are owned by individuals who may use them without security protection and in doing so may pick up viruses. Wireless devices should have some kind of challenge to offer, such as PIN or password or both, before granting access. A two-step authentication provides greater security for larger organizations.

Security should be tested regularly and remote devices should be used to make hack attempts. Security efforts should be monitored for compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley. Security managers need to stay updated regarding the latest developments in network security.

Security in a wireless network

Many outlets such as the Coffee Society based in Campbell, California, offer free wireless access to the customers. Free wireless connectivity entails added security such as that offered by firewalls. If the store has multiple branches, they may have to be connected for running the operations better. mobilepipeline.com reports:

Today, Flynn is preparing to open two more shops, both that will offer free wireless Internet access to patrons. The current stores are getting technological updates as well: Flynn can now remotely monitor sales of his stores, as well as customer buying habits throughout the day; and through video surveillance, he can observe his employees as well as his customers.

Read More: Free Wireless Access: Is It Secure?

VoWLAN-2

The Seamless Converged Communication Across Network (SCCAN) is an industry organization supporting the emergence of open specifications for technologies that facilitate seamless converged communications. According to SCCAN, the future of VoWLAN is bright but it requires heavy investment.

A VoWLAN setup as envisaged by SCCAN includes a WLAN gateway, an access point and PBX from Avaya required for connecting to the CN620 handset from Motorola. The W310 WLAN Gateway with W110 WLAN access point is a wireless controller. Proxim resells it through Avaya. W310 WLAN Gateway is a 16-port Ethernet switch that powers the access points connected to it. The PBX for the system is provided by Avaya. It consists of media servers, module media gateways, and Communication Manager software. The Communication Manager software is compatible with SIP call processing and is capable of handling more than 700 enterprise telephony features. The CN620 costs $ 720 and weighs as less as 5.2 ounces. It has two radios and six antennas inside. It has an 800-mAH battery and is capable of eighty hours of standby and three hours of talk-time. The handset offers Wi-Fi on 2.4- and 5-GHz frequencies.

The Wireless Services Manager (WSM) offered by Motorola operates on Solaris and integrates VoIP and cellular networks. The organizations that are making an effort to develop VoWLAN include IEEE 802.21, which is concentrating on a Media Independent Handover (MIH) support for networks such as wired and wireless 802 networks. MobileIGNITE is a group comprising SIP and wireless infrastructure vendors among others. It releases pretested products in the market. The MobileIGNITE program was initiated by BridgePort, which is a mobile convergence vendor. UMA, which stands for Unlicensed Mobile Access, is made up of companies such as Alcatel, BT, Ericsson, etc. UMA is not based on SIP and concentrates on enabling traditional mobile technology to integrate with IP networks.

VoWLAN-1

According to the Infonetics and Synergy Research Group, approximately 150,000 VoWLAN phones were sold in 2004. The research group predicts that in 2009, around 17 million VoWLAN phones will be sold and up to 100 million dual-mode handsets will be sold. In 2010, around 1 billion cell phones will be shipped. This means that even five years later, VoWLAN phones will still not have a major share of the mobile phone market.

Healthcare, retail, warehousing, and hospitality are four industries that have adopted VoWLAN. The standards-based wireless communicator from Vocera has enabled health-care workers to increase productivity, mobility, and accessibility. A VoWLAN solution, such as the one offered by SpectraLink, facilitates real-time inventory management by enabling communication between the truck-loaders and the warehouse staff. VoWLANs also improve customer care as a mobile staff can offer on-the-spot assistance. Hotels are using their Wi-Fi networks to allow guests to access the Internet and also to communicate with the housekeeping.

Improved QoS, greater deployment of Wi-Fi networks, and inexpensive handsets will further the acceptance of VoWLAN. Another obstacle to pervasive wireless deployments is the difficulty in transporting voice through wireless networks. By using an existing wireless LAN, a VoWLAN helps to improve the in-building coverage even in the sub-basement area. It helps to improve the cellular reception and does not require the installation of cellular repeaters. Even though dual-mode VoWLAN services can yield savings in mobile carrier charges, deploying a VoWLAN can be expensive.

A Wi-Fi handset costs upward of $ 400 and the existing wireless network in a company may require additional work before it can be deployed for VoWLANs. Frequently, the existing wireless network has to be replaced as a VoWLAN network requires dense and seamless RF coverage to enable access in places such as lifts, staircases, closets, restrooms, etc. VoWLANs allow users to access a single voicemail regardless of location and also to avail features such as four-digit dialing.

It is better to have an overlapping network while using VoWLANs in order to maintain the voice quality while roaming between access points. This is because the power output of a VoWLAN is not very high; it is between 20-50 milliwatts. It is not easy to maintain voice quality while roaming in VoWLAN deployments. In a cellular network, it is the cellular base stations that control the roaming behavior of a handset. This allows successful handoffs in the GSM and CDMA networks. In 802.11 wireless networks, the success rate of handoffs is not very high because the roaming is controlled by the handset.

Handsets that have not been optimized to work in a wireless network can lead to interruptions in the communication due to the roaming times. The 802.11k standard will allow handsets to access an AP table for looking up information regarding usage load, signal strength, and service set ID (SSID). The 802.11 standard impacts the number of calls supported by an AP. The 802.11b standard has a link rate of 11 Mbps and a throughput rate of around 6 Mbps; this allows it to support up to seven calls concurrently.

In order to overcome the capacity constraints, it is important to realize that different bands have different properties. Also, reducing the cell size is an option. However, this may result in a complex network design with increased overlaps and a possibility of increased co-channel interference. SpectraLink gateways provide a call-control mechanism for managing the number of calls on an AP. Meru Networks provides a similar mechanism called the voice services module (VSM) in its wireless infrastructural equipment. The VSM is an optional device.

The SpectraLink Voice Priority (SVP) is a proprietary standard that prioritizes voice packets over data packets. In the absence of appropriate QoS standards for wireless networks, packet loss, jitter, etc can affect voice quality even if the network is not heavily loaded. The 802.11e standard deals with QoS for wireless networks. Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) is a component of 802.11e and enables multilevel priority support, admission control, and auto power-save delivery. Multilevel priority support helps to prioritize traffic, Admission control enables the APs to accept or reject calls depending upon their capacity status. Automatic power-save enables a sleep function that allows handsets to wake up in time to receive the voice packets instead of being on power all the time.

As wireless handsets do not have a high processing power and they do not support the commonly used operating systems, they cannot be provided with internal Layer 3 security, which is possible with the existing VPN infrastructure.

VoWLAN location-discovery solutions as provided by companies such as Ekahau are not on par with the location-based telemetry or GPS solutions used by cellular networks to provide E911 services. The AP being used by the wireless handset can be made known to the public safety answering point (PSAP) by using ANI/ALI. High battery life is one of the main requisites for converged devices. Handsets are available with three days of standby and three hours of talk-time. Chipsets developed by companies such as Atheros and Texas Instruments have resulted in handsets that can function for longer periods between charges.

XO Communications

XO Communications, Inc will raise $ 700 million from the sale of its national wireline telecommunications business in order to finance the creation of a broadband wireless service for businesses and service providers. The company will retain ownership of the fixed broadband wireless spectrum assets and will hold licenses for the 28 GHz-31 GHz spectrum range that covers several major markets in the U.S. tmcnet.com reports:

"The action we take today will create a pure-play fixed broadband wireless provider that combines significant resources with in-depth industry expertise to meet the growing demand for high-bandwidth broadband wireless services," said XO CEO Carl Grivner.

Read More: XO Communications Announces Agreement

VOW

Corporates are adopting WLANs enthusiastically hoping to enjoy greater productivity benefits by staying connected at all times. However, voice over wireless LANs are not easy to deploy as wireless networks are not very developed and VOW clients are available in limited types. VOW adoption should increase with the increase in availability of Wi-Fi enabled devices. eweek.com reports:

During the next year, we expect to see a sharp increase in the number of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)-based VOW devices available in the United States. We also expect to see broader standards support: The current batch of devices supports only the slower IEEE 802.11b wireless standard.

Read More: Don't Put Voice over Wi-Fi on Hold

LWAPP

WLANs are moving toward centralized intelligence. The trend is for an architecture that consists of a WAN controller system which is employed for the creation and enforcement of policies across several lightweight access points.

Centralized intelligence for these devices enables efficient management of security, mobility, etc across the WAN. The performance and security of WANs improves and the management becomes easier when functions are divided between the access point and the controller.

The IETF is looking into the development of protocols for managing the communication between the lightweight access points and the WLAN systems.

In traditional WLAN solutions, the access point handles all the traffic handling, security, and mobility, etc. However, this results in the 802.11 traffic being visible only to the individual access point. This can lead to increased management costs as each individual access point must be managed separately. An attack on the network is not visible to everyone on the system and DoS attacks can be neither predicted nor controlled across the WLAN. The security policies for Layers 1, 2, and 3 have a single point of enforcement. Real-time load balancing can not be achieved in an optimal manner. The speed of hand-offs, which is critical for applications such as voice and video, is compromised.

The issue of standardization in a centralized WAN is being looked into in the LWAPP draft, which was prepared by Airespace (acquired by Cisco Systems in March 2005) and NTT DoCoMo. This exercise aims at minimizing the process time in an access point so that the computing resources of the device are used for providing wireless access and not wasted on enforcing policy. The draft also proposes a method for centralized management of policy enforcement for the entire WLAN. An IP routed network or a Layer 2 infrastructure is suggested for providing multivendor access point interoperability.

The LWAPP draft aims to achieve these objectives by means of access point device discovery, information exchange, etc; packet encapsulation, fragmentation, and formatting; management of communication between access points and the wireless system devices. By adopting LWAPP, enterprises can choose interoperable accessible points. This enables them to make decisions keeping in mind the capabilities of the individual access points.

Widespread acceptance of LWAPP should reduce the industry’s dependence on single-vendor proprietary WLAN system devices. Centralized WLAN architectures provided by different vendors can avail secure Layer 2 and 3 networking services by using the open standards solution provided by LWAPP. Vendors can build their applications around a common platform when using LWAPP.

LWAPP was introduced in 2002. It enabled separate management of the real-time traffic, particularly the real-time frame exchange that is accomplished within the access point. Functions such as authentication, security management, etc are performed by the WLAN controllers.

The split MAC functionality of LWAPP was first utilized by the Cisco Centralized WLAN Solution. The solution provided by Cisco enables dynamic RF management across the system and allows dynamic assignment of channels and load balancing. There is only one graphical interface for all the policies such as VLANs and QoS. Uniform security enforcement is facilitated by the enterprise-wide security policies that cover the radio layer, the MAC layer, and the network layer. The Cisco system also facilitates swift hand-offs and quick discovery and remedy of DoS attacks.

Traffic on the WLAN

The performance of WLANs in organizations depends upon the volume and type of traffic that they support. Most organizations install an 802.11b WLAN for data and a separate 802.11a WLAN for voice. The increasing number of entertainment services that include music, games, web-browsing, etc are directed as voice traffic.

The WLAN bandwidth requirements will increase, reducing the number of simultaneous users. There will be greater congestion. QoS, for different types of entertainment traffic, will be more complex to deliver. The number of WLAN access points and their connections to the LAN switch will increase.

Read More: Entertainment Overload on the WLAN

Increased VoWLAN deployments

According to Infonetics Research, the deployment of VoWLANs is being fostered by the growth of wireless VoIP. infoworld.com reports:

The market research and consulting company, in a new study says the number of organizations deploying voice over WLANs will triple over the next two years, from 10 percent currently to 31 percent in 2007, driven by the growing availability of wireless VoIP handsets and voice-enabling wireless infrastructure.

Read More: Voice over WLANs erodes traditional calling models

Wireless LAN management - part 2

VoIP performance management is being pursued in the IP industry which is using a standards-based framework accepted by the IETF, ITU, and the ETSI. A distributed software-probe architecture is employed to provide call-quality feedback in real-time and in a cost-effective manner. The network is monitored for performance in real-time and detailed diagnostic data is provided.

The various network elements have QoS reporting protocols incorporated into them. The protocols are used for transmitting performance related information to the call control systems with only a minor increase in the traffic overhead. The call quality metrics can be assessed by the protocol RTCP XR. Call monitoring by using this framework enables quick isolation of faulty data so that it can be resolved in isolation before a transient issue becomes chronic. This is important because VoIP has a lower tolerance of delay and jitter than other IP-based applications.

Call-quality monitoring agents such as VQmon can be embedded in devices such as WLAN access points, switches, client devices, etc as the VoIP packet traverses the network path via these devices. VQmon agents offer the advantage of scalability and of being small in size and not making heavy demands of memory and CPU resources. Information regarding the listening quality scores and the severity of jitter along with its impact is provided by VQmon. VQmon executed these functions by using as less as 0.1% of the network bandwidth. This is because a very low reporting frequency.

The ITU G.107 E-Model with ETSI TS 101329-5 Annex E extensions forms the basis for VQmon, which can be used for the active testing of live calls. VQmon/EP (End Point) and VQmon/SA (Stream Analysis) are the two variants of VQmon. VQmon measures and reports the following parameters:

• Percentages of packets lost and packets discarded are reported. This helps to understand the extent to which a call is affected by network packet loss and jitter.

• By measuring the density of bursts, its impact on call quality can be understood and corrective actions undertaken.

• The length of time between bursts and the rate of packet loss during this period helps to understand user feedback in a better manner.

• The sources of prolonged delay can be identified by measuring the round-trip delay and end-system delay. This helps to devise plans in order to combat echo.

• The metrics of signal and noise levels help in pinpointing issues that originate due to a disproportionate disparity in signal and noise levels. This enables the detection of signal- and noise-level problems at mid-stream without having to decode the voice packets.

• Data obtained using the MOS and R factor can provide quick information on call quality. The R factor provides objective feedback on latency, jitter, packet loss etc for a given CODEC type.

• Incorrectly configured systems can be detected by using mid-stream probes.

Given below are the details of protocols supported by VQmon.

• RTCP XR is used for Media Path QoS Reporting and helps by enabling the collection and generation of call-quality reports by remote endpoints. Performance reports can pass through the firewall routers. It also helps to obtain analog signal information by means of network probes.

• H.460.9 Annex B, H.248.30 and SIP for Signaling QoS Reporting are used for call-quality reporting to call management systems. This helps the call-detail record (CDR) databases to provide information on the service quality to relevant customers.

• The SNMP and the RTCP XR Management Information Base (MIB) is being developed by the IETF. It will be used in the gateways and help in the recovery of metrics through SNMP. Call-quality information for both outbound and inbound streams will be available at the gateway.

Wireless LAN management - part 1

The convergence of voice and data enabled by VoIP is allowing companies to realize savings in telecom and operations and also reap productivity benefits. Wireless LANs, also known as Wi-Fi networks, are based on IEEE 802.11 are moving out of their traditional applications in warehouses and healthcare institutions and are becoming a part of the corporate world.

According to the Synergy Research Group, the proliferation of wireless LANs will be driven the growth of VoIP over wireless LAN (VoWLAN). It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 36% for the next five years. In a wireless network, the VoIP signals can get delayed due to multipath. In a radio-frequency (RF) medium, the obstacles in the path of a signal can lead to the signals arriving at the receiving end from more than one path.

Delays in handoffs that take place between wireless access points also affect signal quality. In an enterprise environment where cabling is either difficult or costly, wireless mesh backbone nodes offer an alternative. The cable connections to the hops between the nodes and from the APs to the Ethernet switches lead to an increase in the latency. Interference and the lack of synchronization between the hops can lead to frame corruption at the nodes. In order to avoid corruption, the frame contents are validated for every frame by means of running a checksum. A corrupt frame is retransmitted after a brief backoff.

Retransmission and delay are the main reasons for jitter in a wireless network and these affect its reliability.

Emerging 802.11 standards should help in prioritizing real-time traffic. However, given the variability inherent in a Wi-Fi network, achieving a high QoS may be a difficult proposition. There is always a possibility of a dead coverage spot or an AP becoming overloaded temporarily leading to poor signal strength. It is important that the network managers embed VoIP monitoring software into the wireless LAN network elements.

In a wireless network, the components that make up the LAN traversed by VoIP packets include wireless VoIP handsets, APs, wireless LAN switches, wireless LAN gateways, 802.11 nodes and routers.

Wireless VoIP and savings in the office

St Agnes Healthcare, in Baltimore USA, invested in portable phones manufactured by Vocera and reported improved productivity and dollar savings. The hospital unit secretary, nurses, and nurse technicians reported saving 1650, 1146, and 626 hours of work per year, respectively. This translated into savings in excess of $ 74,000 per year for each Vocera device. 802.11 wireless connections are used to transmit voice as data packets that are passed through a speech recognition device and then transferred to the destination by routers. Vocera is just one of the many wireless communication devices, others include Spectralink Netlink, Hitachi IP-5000 VoIP Wireless Phone. VoWLAN looks set to supplant digital enhanced cordless communications (DECT), which is currently the preferred choice in warehouses, retail stores, etc. If a company shifts to VoIP as a part of its PABX upgrade, it does not have to retain DECT, which requires a different kind of management. Instead, VoWLAN devices, which work with commodity WLAN base stations already being installed by companies to maintain data networks, are a better choice. In the absence of a standard QoS structure, the quality of calls in a WLAN may vary with certain factors like vendor service and type of equipment. WLANs have design constraints that do not allow roaming between access points as routing between different subnets is not possible. This implies that the user must stay in the area where he is getting a clear reception, if he steps out of this area, he may lose the call. Avaya and WLAN company Proxim have come together to produce WLANs that enable roaming in the subnet. For a company to truly leverage the benefits of VoIP, its employees should be able to communicate using VoIP from wherever they are and should not have to fall back on another phone. This objective will largely be achieved when more and more cell phone manufacturers incorporate 802.11b for voice calls into their instruments. In order to sell, a communications device should switch automatically between GSM and VoIP networks. It will be easier to introduce VoIP in a company if the employees can get the benefits of GSM and VoIP combined in their mobiles. A survey by research organization Vanson Bourne that was performed in six countries concluded that converged devices have a huge market. For wireless VoIP to grow and find acceptance in the corporate world, GSM phones that are mobile compatible need to be developed. This calls for a partnership between VoIP and GSM specialists; for example, the partnership between Avaya and Motorola. I-Mate, which is based in Dubai has released handsets that have a Skype client, this feature enables users to make free calls to other Skype compatible mobiles from wireless hotspots. Till date, VoWLAN handsets worth US $ 45 million have been sold. According to Infonetics, the technology will achieve very good market penetration by 2009. This may perhaps not be great news for equipment manufacturing companies that depend on telecommunication carriers for business as VoIP enabled mobile phones will affect the business of these telecom carriers. If mobiles can be equipped with an authentication and encryption method that does not tax an instrument's computational and battery limitations then it would be possible to use VoIP capable mobiles for receiving calls on a network from anywhere in the world. Authentication is made possible by using a subscriber identity module (SIM) card for a challenge - response. This helps to establish the identity of the VoIP caller. In the absence of such an arrangement, it will be difficult for companies to permit an unsecured VoIP call to cross the firewalls and access the internal network.

The planning required for implementing a wireless LAN service

Voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) is finding increased acceptance across vertical markets in the healthcare, retail, and warehousing industry. Deploying VoWLAN presents its own set of challenges, distinct from those presented by wired VoIP requirements. Low latency with minimum jitter, smooth hand-offs, coverage, and mobility are some of the requirements that need to be fulfilled. In a WLAN setup, the bandwidth is lower as compared to wired networks and there are several devices that compete for the same bandwidth. Consequently, radio frequency (RF) has to be used intelligently in order to minimize latency. This can be achieved by implementing a mechanism that regulates traffic and prioritizes voice traffic over data traffic, thereby ensuring QoS. Wireless multimedia extensions (WME) and Wi-Fi scheduled multimedia (WSM) are standards compliant protocols for prioritizing voice traffic. The prioritization has to work with IP-based prioritizations like DiffServ code point and 802.1p. Since wireless phones have to fulfill cost, mobility, and power consumption criteria, they do not have a very robust security and authentication system. In fact, a robust authentication system can lead to increased latency and hamper seamless roaming while shifting from one access point to another. By working in a virtual network, wireless phones can work in a secure domain without connecting to a voice gateway. VoWLANs work with 802.11b that offers a bandwidth of 11 Mbps; however, to utilize the bandwidth in optimum fashion it is important that the LAN be designed correctly. Factors such as location, risk of network failure, operational loads, etc affect the performance of the radios in a WLAN. RF management and load balancing should be used to control the interference with other radios in the vicinity and to handle the calls in busy areas more effectively. VoWLAN requires sufficient coverage in order to avoid dropped calls and therefore the installations should be used only for voice traffic and not for storing data. RF management should be able to plug any coverage gaps in case of AP malfunctions or redundant WLAN resources should be provided. VoWLANs should enable seamless connectivity to enable people to use their cell phones as well. A Layer 2 (VLAN) and a Layer 3 (IP) infrastructure support roaming. Roaming with Layer 2 is easy to execute but restricts the users whereas a Layer 3 service is non-restrictive but is not very easy to implement. Since VoWLAN roaming is effected with an IP infrastructure, a Layer 3 roaming is preferred. The performance of a VoWLAN with respect to roaming can be measured in terms of the scalability of roaming, amount of jitter at an access point coupled with a different controller, etc.  Finally, it can be concluded that the success of VoWLAN depends upon the architecture of the WLAN and factors such as mobility, security, and coverage.

The DVG-G1402SL wireless router

The DVG-G1402SL is a broadband wireless VoIP router that has been introduced by D Link and Lingo. It is aimed at fulfilling the requirements of homes and SMBs. The DVG-G1402SL router can be connected with an analog phone to make VoIP calls. It is an 802.11g router that allows Internet connectivity to wireless clients. It has a 4-port switch that can connect up to 4 computers.

Verizon's Big Step for the transformation of the Cellular VoIP Industry

Verizon is planning to conduct trials of CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision A technology next year. It will be major milestone in the transformation of the wireless industry. It will eventually turn all cellular conversation into VoIP calls.

This technology is called Rev A in short. It has incorporated several advance features compared to its previous version. The improvements have extended broadband IP links carrying both the data and voice to the handset. That is beneficial for both the service providers and users. It lets service providers to lower their capital and operating expenses for network equipments. voip-magazine.com reports:

Of course, some such savings are possible simply by going to IP gear in the transport network, regardless of the air interface, observes Ruchi Prasad, director of global CDMA product marketing at Nortel. The more exciting benefits come from the fact that the handset itself becomes a native IP device, which makes it possible to extend all the cool features of IP telephony to cellular users.

Read More: Verizon's Big Step Towards Cellular VoIP

Cisco and Intel joined hands to bolster VoIP over Wireless use

Intel and Cisco announced that they would improve their Wireless Local Area Network (LAN) and the use of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) with a new wireless suite. The two companies have decided to produce a new set of features that will combine wireless infrastructure and mobile chip technology to improve VoIP over the wireless use. The new features will be available in the first quarter of 2006.

The growing impact of VoIP has generated interest among the major wireless providers to opt for it. There are so many companies like Skype and Vonage who already opted for VoIP. The move of Intel and Cisco is seen as a scope for cooperation between all the companies in the VoIP field. The collaboration is very much interesting in view of the strong presence of both the companies in their respective areas. Both the companies hinted that they would work to improve the quality and security of VoIP for both the corporate and consumer wireless users. technewsworld.com reports:

Cisco and Intel stressed their focus on security in the wireless LAN collaboration: Intel will join the Cisco-led Network Admission Control (NAC) program, and Cisco is joining Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT) program. The companies, which announced the latest collaboration at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco this week, said their security and management technologies would be compatible by the fourth quarter of this year.

Read More: Cisco, Intel Ratchet Up WLANs, VoIP

WEP Is Weeping

Own a Wireless network?  Ever wonder where all your database files went from your hard drive last week?  Maybe several FBI agents deleted them just because they could.  In a recent ISSA meeting in Los Angeles, CA a team of FBI agents displayed how simple it was to compromise a WEP encryption on a wireless network.  While it is not a unknown fact that such a thing can be done, it was the fact that it only took three minutes to get the job done that was surprising.

For those of you not familiar with the WEP technology, it is an encryption scheme used on 802.11a, b and g wireless units which uses a key to scramble packets so that third parties cannot simply snatch them.  When the data reaches its destination, a computer with the same key can them unscramble the information and make sense of it.  Unfortunately any WEP encryption rating is decreased by 24 bits due to an Initialization Vector at the head of the packet.  Before last year, in order to gain access to a wireless network would take days due to the amount of packets needed to use Aircrack, a WEP cracking program, affectively.  The technique has now been perfected and leaves everyone with wireless networks at risk.

What does this have to do with VoIP you ask?  Well, in order for VoIP to hit the big times, true wireless connectivity is necessary.  I recommend the "Look Ma, No Wires" article to learn more about this.  With VoIP already being insecure on various levels, taking it off hard lines and into the air would be mere suicide.  Why not just increase the encryption rating then?  Unfortunately when you enlarge the size of the encryption then there are more packets streaming.  Wireless would not be able to support streaming voice and enlarged packets at the same time due to its small bandwidth.  According to Tom's Networking:

Millions of wireless access points are spread across the US and the world. About 70% percent of these access points are unprotected — wide open to access by anyone who happens to drive by. The other 30% are protected by WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) and a small handful are protected by the new WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) standard.

Read more at: FBI Teaches Lesson In How To Break Into Wi-Fi Networks

Look Ma, No Wires

With the way the VoIP is going, your secretary may in fact be out of a job within in the next 5 to 10 years.  Recently, corporations have been replacing their outdated PBX analog systems with new VoIP ones and are saving thousands of dollars on their phone bills.  Even though VoIP is a relatively new technology, it’s already signed up for a face lift.  As it seems, the good people at IEEE stand down and thought, "Hey, VoIP runs on LANs, don't we have WLANS too?".  And thus, wireless VoIP was born.  The essence behind the technology in laments terms is that it piggy backs on a wireless network and connects through a broadband signal like any other VoIP system.  The benefit to a wireless system however, is that your business office could be portable to wherever you could connect to the corporate network.  That corporate cell phone that you don’t see the bill for would be replaced by a VoIP activated one.  Many mobile companies such as hospitals and warehouses already have mobile systems emplaced inside of their building.

While this may seem too good to be true, there are several draw backs to this new system.  For instance, as it is well known, the distance allowed through SpeedBoosted Wireless G routers are around 1/4 of a mile.  In order to create an all encompassing infrastructure would be a huge undertaking for any company wishing to pus the limits of their own property.  Additionally, if you were walking around outside on a VoIP phone, you would have to connect every time you passed from one nod to the other.  Although the connection time would be around three seconds, the conversation would be lost due to the reconnection.  The reason for this reconnection would be to authenticate the user, and insure that they belong on the network.  Although current WEP standards would elevate this connection problem, any hacker with a brain and keyboard could hack the connection and wire into the conversation.  Thus, a streaming encryption would be necessary; do I smell RFID?  Maybe so.

Although the promise of Wireless VoIP is too much to overlook, the implication of it will be a true test of networking ingenuity and corporate might.  Until the connectivity issues are taken care of, wireless VoIP is just going to be a good idea.  My advice until then is to stay plugged in behind that 128-bit encryption, and keep that cell phone close at hand.  According to the WirelessNewsNetwork:

Gartner analyst Keene doesn't expect voice over wireless to move into the mainstream for at least five years but recommends that businesses prepare for its arrival. They can do so by choosingnetwork infrastructure such as switches and routers that will support IP telephony in both wired and wireless environments, as well as provide the redundancy required for IP telephony (analog phone lines work when the power goes out or the network crashes, but IP telephony won't). "That's cheaper than ripping it all out later," Keene notes.

Read more at: VoIP Without Wires

TowerStream Optimizes Network for VoIP

TowerStream, a fixed-wireless broadband service provider, recently completed a month-long trial in Rhode Island that allowed VoIP traffic to enter its pre-WiMax system via Wi-Fi hotspots. The company is now gearing up to launch a beta test in New York. According to internetnews.com:

"Over the last nine to 12 months, VoIP has accelerated in acceptance, and Wi-Fi cards have had huge penetration; they're in nearly every notebook shipped and in handsets," Jeff Thompson, TowerStream president and COO, told internetnews.com.

TowerStream has already identified locations for high-powered access points in the city, Thompson said. And the beta-testers can use any VoIP service, provided it is Session Initiation Protocol-based, which most are.

Read more: TowerStream Preps For VoIP Test

VoIP on Wi-Fi Highway

U.S. Interstate Highway I-19, which runs from the Mexican border at Nogales, Ariz. in the south to Tucson, Ariz. in the north, is now the world's first Wi-Fi highway. A high-speed data network with Wi-Fi mobile voice data capabilities now covers a 4.9-mile stretch of the highway and by May will cover a 32-mile stretch from Rio Rico to just south of Green Valley, thanks to Wi-VOD Corporation and a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The network is connected by nodes that are located about 1.2 miles apart. According to ExtremeVoIP:

Rio Rico Fire Deparment Chief Mike Foster said that "Having mobile voice and high-speed Internet access in our mobile units on the highways delivers what we are looking for. The speed at which the mobile VOIP worked was very impressive."

Read more: VOIP At 80 MPH: World's First Wi-Fi Highway

VoIP Essential for WiMax Providers

WiMax, the 802.16-2004 wireless standard that will provide broadband Internet access over many miles, is not expected to enter the mainstream until 2007. But when it does, WiMax providers would be wise to bundle VoIP to make enough money for survival. According to silicon.com:

WiMax' promise lies in its ability to deliver broadband to large areas without wires stretched into homes. Proponents of the technology add that WiMax will bring broadband to rural areas that telcos do not currently reach.

Read more: VoIP could be key to WiMax

Motorola Developing Wi-Fi VoIP Cell Phones

Motorola has announced that they are currently developing cell phones that will be able to make calls over Wi-Fi networks. The phones will work on both the GSM network and over Wi-Fi using VoIP software provided by Skype. According to CNET News:

Because the phones would steer calls away from cell phone networks, combination cell and voice over Internet Protocol phones could have a profound impact on the wireless industry.

VoIP calls, connecting via a Wi-Fi network to a home broadband connection, can be made for free or at prices sometimes half of that for a cell phone call.

Read more: Motorola phones to call on Wi-Fi, VoIP

WiFi i-Mate Skype Phones

i-Mate will begin distributing mobile phones that double as VoIP phones in Europe, the United States, and Asia by March. The phones will be packaged with Skype's VoIP software. According to silicon.com:

The i-Mate phones are based on a Microsoft operating system and contain radios capable of using both cell and Wi-Fi networks. When you're in a Wi-Fi hotspot, the internet phone software lets you dial other Skype users for free, or pay per minute for calling traditional phones.

Analysts have long suggested that the net/cell phone tandem could prove a potent weapon that net phone, mobile and broadband providers could use to steal customers from the nation's major local phone companies.

Read more: Phone your i-Mate on net-enabled mobile

TeleSym Announces VoIP SymPhone for MC50

TeleSym has announced that they will provide VoIP support for the Symbol MC50 enterprise digital assistant (EDA) with its new SymPhone solution. SymPhone enables users to make VoIP calls from the EDA over a wired or wireless LAN or via the Internet.

According to the press release at TMCnet.com:

TeleSym(R) is focused on the growing Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) marketplace. The company's SymPhone(TM) system provides enterprises with voice everywhere they need it. It offers the highest quality voice communications on laptops, PCs, and Pocket PC mobile devices over any broadband IP network. SymPhone is an enterprise-class solution that supports key telephony standards such as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and is designed to be interoperable with the full range of PBX and network environments in the enterprise.

Read more: TeleSym Announces Mobile VoIP Solution Support for Symbol MC50 Enterprise Digital Assistant

Vonage F-1000 Wi-Fi VoIP Phone

Vonage and UTStarcom have partnered to develop a new Wi-Fi consumer VoIP phone, the Vonage F-1000. The new product will offer mobility across 802.11b networks and will be available to Vonage subscribers in the U.S. this summer.

According to the press release at Business Wire:

While this is not the first foray into providing cellular phone services over Wi-Fi -- Net2Phone has been conducting a trial in Newark, New Jersey -- Vonage's extensive reach, via hotspot aggregator Boingo Wireless's 12,000+ locations in 48 U.S. states and 32 countries, means that F-1000 purchasers will enjoy a practical alternative to traditional cellular communications.

According to Philip Solis, senior analyst, wireless connectivity at ABI Research, many consumers will use the new phone as a cordless phone replacement on their home or business Wi-Fi networks. Some might not want to carry the extra VoIP handset in addition to their standard mobile phone when traveling. But such a service could have value for anyone wishing to make a large number of calls from public hotspots.

Read more: New Vonage VoIP Phone to Speed Voice-Over Wi-Fi to Consumer Market, Says ABI Research

ABI Research: WiFi VoIP Will Prevail

Phil Solis, senior analyst at ABI Research says that the ultimate goal of ubiquitous WiFi is pushing Vonage, SBC, and other companies into delivering VoWi-Fi, or wireless VoIP.

According to the press release at Business Wire:

He points out that Vonage will soon offer dedicated VoWi-Fi handsets that will allow users to place VoIP calls wirelessly, either through their home Wi-Fi access point, or, in partnership with Boingo Wireless, through any of Boingo's network of public Wi-Fi hotspots (they have 11,000 worldwide). [...]

Motorola is expected to release dual (cell/Wi-Fi) handsets for corporate use by the end of 2004 or early 2005. Falling chip prices will see consumer models follow soon after.

Read more: Convergence to Drive VoIP via Wi-Fi, according to ABI Research

AT&T, NetGear Work on WiFi VoIP Handset

A report out of India indicates that AT&T and NetGear is working with Intoto Solutions to create a wireless VoIP handset that would be available by the end of the third quarter of next year.

From Cyber India Online Limited:

Intoto Solutions CEO, Sathyen Iyengar informed, "We are working closely with our partners like AT&T and NetGear to come out with Wi-Fi based VoIP phones. "He elaborated that such devices are basically cordless phones, which gets connected to an access point through 802.11 b enabling it to transmit voice over the Wi-Fi network.

"These handsets would target the business enterprises wherein the conventional phones could be replaced with Wi-Fi enabled cordless sets that use VoIP to make calls."

Read more: Wi-Fi powered handsets to debut in '05